25 Before 25

Madrid Marathon Training: Week 7

2012-02-14T17:03:00.004-05:00

So, let's just assume that from now on I'm probably going to write these posts about my training every other week. Oops. Last week, with The Pilot's birthday and being swamped at work, I just never got around to writing my Week 6 training recap.

Training has been going really great. I've been really happy with all of my runs, my pacing, etc. and up until this weekend, I was really excited about the Cowtown Challenge which I'm racing in just under 2 weeks. I was really excited...until I got sick.

I'm still feeling awful. My chest is so tight, I feel like I've been walking around with bricks strapped to my chest. So needless to say, I'm not running right now. I'm kind of surprised that I'm not freaking out about what that will do my training, but I'm not. I'm just trying to focus on getting better...despite the fact that I keep getting worse...and I'll worry about running when I can start running again.

Hey, maybe a few days off will be good for me.

In the mean time, I've been thinking about Marine Corps a lot. The fact is, I was really disappointed with Marine Corps. The 5 1/2 minute PR wasn't good enough. I wanted that sub-4, and I had it until Mile 25 and I hated that everything just feel apart and that I had to climb up that gargantuan hill at the very end of the race. I mean, I literally blacked out at the finish line.

I could barely stand up straight post-race. Lucky I had a handsome pilot to lean on!

In looking back on my training, I realize a lot that went wrong in training that could have avoided my downfall from Mile 25.

First off, I was racing way too often - I ran 2 back to back half-marathons during training...both of which were in my last 2 weeks before taper. Since I was racing all the time, I was constantly adding miles before and after races, which often resulted in something like a 20 minute lag between runs. I don't think I ever went out and ran a distance of longer than 15 miles without stopping during MCM training, so when I hit Mile 14 of the race itself, I started to slow down. I stopped to stretch and drink some water...because that's what I had done in that point during all of my training. I didn't think about it that way at the time, but that's what my body felt so that's what I did - I listened to my body.

Even though I set a PR at one of those half-marathons, I seriously regretted it at my worst race ever the following week.

Second, I changed my goals...a lot. my initial goal was 3:59:59. Then I started thinking I could race a 3:50, then a 3:55, then back to a 3:50. So every one of my Marathon Goal Pace runs was done at a different pace. This definitely presented a challenge when I was trying to clock into a pace on Race Day.

So, now, I'm into Week 7. I haven't raced once this training cycle and while it's been hard to not succumb to the peer pressure of signing up for fun races with friends, I've held my ground. I know what my Madrid goals are and I'm not balking on them. I'm feeling good and I know I won't make the same mistakes this time around.

Next weekend, I'm running the Cowtown Challenge. I'll be running the 5k with my little sister on Saturday and the half-marathon on Sunday. My training plan calls for a half-marathon during that week as a sort of midterm test to see how training is really going. The 5k run is, well, just for fun...although my 17-year-old sister who has never been a runner has been throwing back 8:00 miles like its her job. And, well, I signed up for both races because you get a really sweet medal for completing any 2 races on Race Weekend and who doesn't like some new bling?

So, Cowtown, I'm coming for you. I just have to get better first =/

No Week 7 plans or goals since I'm not too sure what they'll be. My biggest goal is to be well enough to run 16 miles this weekend! Cross your fingers!

Oh and Happy Valentine's Day!

Sick

2012-02-13T12:24:00.000-05:00

Well kids, I'm sick.

I just started this post with "Well kids" without even thinking about it. I've been watching way too much How I Met Your Mother.

An eye infection and what my doctor thinks is asthma (which I know is not) have sidelined me from doing well, anything (except watch HIMYM) this weekend.

Saturday morning, I woke up to snow. I had plans for a 15 mile run but the snow was coming down pretty hard and because of this little eye thing I have going on, I wasn't about to go run 15 miles in the snow with my glasses on. That wouldn't have been pretty. So I decided to wait it out but by the time it stopped snowing, I wouldn't have had enough time to get dressed, get to the park, run 15 miles and be back in time for my follow-up appointment with the eye doctor.

So I decided to go for an easy 4-6 miles on the treadmill and save my 15 for Sunday. I got dressed, went downstairs, hopped on a treadmill and within 2 minutes of running, my chest was so on fire, I felt like I've been smoking my whole life. (Not that I know what that's like, but it's what I'd imagine a life-long smoker would feel like on a treadmill). I forced myself through 2 miles before I had to call it quits. And since then, I've been in bed drinking tea, taking all sorts of cough/cold medicines and trying to kick this thing.

I woke up this bright and early with plans of getting 6 miles in before work. Instead, I found myself in the doctor's office arguing with a doctor that no, I don't have asthma and my chest pain does not come on every single time I run that it was only on Saturday that I couldn't run because of chest pain. Seriously, I spent 15 minutes arguing with this guy that I don't have asthma, no one in my family has asthma, I just have a cold and would like some antibiotics to kick this thing so that I'm not in bed with my teddy bear, a box of tissues and an endless stream of tea on my birthday.

No dice. Instead of antibiotics, I walked out with an inhaler, a nasal spray and a recommendation to take Claritin. Great, thanks doc. I've had pneumonia before and while I know this isn't pneumonia, I know it's definitely some kind of upper respiratory thing. What is it with doctors these days? Seriously. I wish I had never told him that I went running on Saturday because as soon as I said that, he locked it into his head that I have asthma.

I don't claim to be an expert or know more than doctors know come on, we all know what a cold feels like. And I don't think that asthma would all of a sudden develop over night when I have never, ever had any kind of chest pain/breathing problems through my I-don't-know-how-many-years of soccer, running, dancing, judo, lacrosse, etc.

So I'm sick. I tried to do my daily crunches routine this morning (I'm up to 165!) and I got through 4. Maybe it's the asthma.

*Sigh*

So I'm kicking off my birthday week in bed. I think it's time to go somewhere tropical once I kick this thing. I hope you all had weekends full of long runs, brunches, reading good books and hanging out with good people.

Shoe Dogging

2012-02-10T12:06:00.003-05:00

I've been competitively running for just about 2 years now. In March of 2010 I started training for my first half-marathon. Since then, I've run a number of races ranging from the 5k distance to the marathon and I've run almost all of them exclusively in Nike shoes. Nike Pegasus shoes to be exact. I tried a pair of New Balance 890s for a while but they barely lasted me through one half-marathon training cycle before falling apart. I've tested out the Vibram Five Fingers, but never for a race. At the end of the day, I always come back to Nikes.

Since I've been running longer distances, I've always had an issue with blisters, calluses and black toe nails. I took this to be normal until Katie A. and I had a conversation via Twitter and she pointed out that with the right shoes, this shouldn't be happening. So I started thinking about getting new shoes. Shortly before Marine Corps, I went to Jack Rabbit to try out some new shoes. After trying on about 7 different pairs of Asics, I finally just decided to go with what I know and I ran in the new Nike Pegasus 28s for Marine Corps. I knew I wanted new shoes but I couldn't find anything I liked and just decided to go with what I knew.

Fast forward to this Wednesday which was my wonderful boyfriend's birthday. The night before, I headed out to New Jersey to spend his birthday with him. Wednesday morning, after getting breakfast at our favorite bagel place in town, The Pilot told me he had a surprise for me. "But it's your birthday," I said. Didn't matter, he had something up his sleeve. So we rolled up to Road Runner Sports, a running store near our home town and he said, "Happy Birthday, we're getting you some new running shoes." I was slightly hesitant because well, I always get my shoes from Jack Rabbit and I always run in Nikes. But I guess The Pilot really does listen to me babble on about running and I guess he really does read my blog because he knew I needed new shoes and he knew Road Runner would be the best place to go.

First, we sat down with one of their shoe experts who asked me a bunch of questions about my running habits: what I'm training for, how often I run, what my weekly mileage is, what kind of surfaces I run on, etc. He took my measurements and put all of this information into a computer and then had me stand on this weird mat thing that generated an image of my feet onto the computer and showed where the pressure points on my shoes are. Turns out, I'm putting a lot of pressure on my left heel even when I'm just standing still. So, after looking at that, I stepped up on the treadmill and started running barefoot. Then, we looked at a tape of my running. Turns out, I'm under-pronated and have a tendency to roll my ankles in with each step I take. The diagnosis? A stability shoe...a huge difference from the neutral shoes I've been running in. The next step was to fit me for some custom insoles.

After spending close to 45 minutes discussing all of these things, then, it was time to go look at shoes. My trusty shoe guy brought out a stability shoe from just about every brand out there: Brooks, Nike, Asics, Mizuno, Saucony, etc. I really appreciated this because I feel like every time I go to Jack Rabbit, they really try to push me on the Asics, which just don't feel right for me. I tried each of the different shoes with my new custom fit insoles. I really liked the Brooks, Mizunos and Sauconys so after I had narrowed it down to those 3, I tried them with and without the insoles and after a few runs on the treadmill in each, finally made the decision to go with the Saucony ProGrid Guide 5s. I love these shoes. The best part about them? Road Runner gives you 90 days to try out your shoes and insoles and return them if you don't like them.

Last night, I had a 4 mile marathon goal pace run on deck. I didn't want to test out the new shoes on an interval run just yet so I took the insoles out and put them in my Nikes to see just how much of a difference they make. I've never been one to really trust insoles but let me tell you, my Nikes, which have some 270+ miles on them, which I've run at least 2 half-marathons and a full marathon in (I know, I know!) felt like brand new shoes. So I'm sold on the insoles. But after the short treadmill runs I did with my new Sauconys yesterday, I know I won't be disappointed when I take these babies out for an easy 6 tomorrow.

I was amazed at all of the information Road Runner gave me and I really appreciated trying on so many different pairs of shoes without any bias from the store. I always thought I was a neutral runner but after really sitting down and analyzing my form and looking at so many different factors, it turns out I really do need more of a stability shoe. So this year's birthday present from the boyfriend? A+. I can't wait to break these babies in for Madrid!

*Disclaimer: I was not compensated in any way for this review. The opinions reflected in this post are solely mine.*

Have you gotten new running shoes lately?
Are you a brand loyalist when it comes to running shoes?

Have you ever had your gait properly analyzed like this before?

Three Things Thursday

2012-02-09T19:57:00.003-05:00

1. Workout & Wine - A few weeks ago, I signed up to get email updates from a new NYC based company I found called Kiwisweat who hosts pop-up fitness classes at fun locations around the city. When an email came across my Inbox for an event called "Workout & Wine," I knew I was in before I even knew the details. So I called up my trusty cross-training buddy and we signed up. Tuesday night, we made our way to Top of the Garden for a killer workout followed by wine and hors d'oeuvres with some amazing ladies. Kiwisweat had partnered up with Rogue Female Fitness for the event and it was awesome! Leanne, our instructor had fantastic energy and a killer playlist. She's running Boston this year and was super friendly. She invited Emily and I back to a class with her at Rogue and I can't wait to take her up on her offer! I will definitely be back for Kiwisweat and Rogue!

Emily and I...slightly drunk and somewhat sweaty

2. New Kicks - Yesterday, while I was in New Jersey for The Pilot's birthday, he decided to take me out for a little birthday surprise of my own. The Pilot brought me to our local running store for an expert shoe fitting before buying me the shoes that are going to get me across the finish line in under 4 hours in Madrid this April. I have a whole post planned on just how fantastic this whole experience was and you can check that out tomorrow, but what's important right now is that me and my new Sauconys are at the start of a beautiful relationship.

3. Madrid Training - I know, I"m terrible...I skipped another Madrid Training post this week. I hate that because I really do love writing those posts as I think they're a great way for me to reflect on my training but this week has just been insane. Work has been absolutely insane with my boss leaving and with The Pilot's birthday and heading out to Jersey, I just didn't get around to it. What I would have said in my post in a nutshell is this: Training is still going really well. I've gotten back into the habit of strength and cross-training after missing a week of both and I'm still feeling really good. I have 15 miles on deck this weekend and I'm 2 weeks away from the Cowtown Half. I still haven't decided on a race strategy for that just yet but as I'm increasing my speed work in the next week, I know I'll decide that sooner, rather than later. I had a killer hill workout this week what I busted out in what may have been one of my fastest 6 mile training runs ever and I'm still feeling pretty high from it. My Marathon Goal Pace runs are feeling easy and I'm still feeling really strong. So all in all, training is going great.

That's what's going on this Thursday!
Do you ever drink post-workout? How excited do you get over new running shoes?

Are you training for anything right now? How's it going?

All Quiet on the Blogging Front

2012-02-06T18:26:00.001-05:00

If you're as busy as I've been lately, you've probably noticed that I've been a bit more quiet than usual here on the blog. Things at work have been a little bit hectic. My amazing, wonderful boss who I love is leaving and her last day is this Friday so things have been really busy at work just trying to transition everything.

Aside from that, things have been going pretty well. I've started watching "How I Met Your Mother" from the beginning because I got really tired of watching reruns all the time and having these crazy reactions like...Wait, Ted was engaged?! Barney and Robyn dated?! Lily's pregnant?!

So, I've banned myself from watching HIMYM reruns until I'm all caught up. I'm currently on Season 3.

Oh and can I just say how much I love Neil Patrick Harris? LOVE.

Training for Madrid has been going ~~swimmingly~~ runningly? Can I say that? I just did. But you can read all about that on tomorrow's Training recap...if you're interested.

So, my birthday is next week. My 25th birthday. And, well I started this blog to do a whole lot of things before I turned 25. Have I done all of them? No, but I've done a lot of them and over the last week, I definitely got a lot done on the list. I didn't do a January Recap for this month because it's just too close to my birthday and I plan on doing a full 25 Before 25 recap sometime next week so stay tuned.

What I did do last week is finally make my "Where I've Been" travel map. Check it out.

Hanging on my wall

A close up of some of my pins!

The white pins are all of the places I've been in the US. The blue pins are all of the places I've been overseas. The red pins are all of the places I've lived and the single yellow pin is for where I'm going next...which currently is Madrid!

I used spray adhesive to mount a map I bought at the Museum of Natural History to a piece of foam core. I bought a cheap frame at Bed, Bath and Beyond and popped out the plastic (it didn't have glass) and framed the map. Then I used map pins I bought from Staples to tack all of the places! I absolutely love it!

Other list-type things I did this weekend? I finished reading Toni Morrison's "Song of Solomon" (omg LOVE) and watched the movie "Life is Beautiful." If you like foreign films (this one was Italian), I definitely recommend it. It was a beautiful story about an Italian Jew and his very young son who are taken to a Nazi concentration camp during WWII. To keep his son from getting scared or being fully aware of the situation, the father tries to make a game out of their experience. The film is labeled a tragicomedy so it was both funny and sad. I highly recommend it!

This weekend, I had glamorous plans of boycotting the Super Bowl to work on my thesis. After working for the better part of Saturday (and getting to meet Olympic figure skater, Sasha Cohen!) and doing my long run on Sunday as a result, I put on hot pink fleece pants and compression socks and started going through the large pile of books I've acquired for my thesis research. My plan was to get through 6 of them on Sunday night. But Emily was hanging out with some friends just a few short blocks away, so I decided to swing by in time for kick off and leave at half time. You should all be shocked to learn that I stayed for the whole game. You know what though? I still got through 4 of the 6 books I needed to get through. Fair trade? I'd say so.

You all know that I love football but honestly, I could have cared less about this game. Born a Cowboys fan and bred a Jets fan, I really kind of hate both teams, but I was in good company so I had a great time last night and hey...there were Crumbs cupcakes and Magnolia cake! I definitely made the right decision!

So that's what's going on in my neck of the woods! How are all of you doing? Any big plans for the week? This week is The Pilot's birthday, so I'm headed to his neck of the woods tomorrow to go celebrate with him! As far as the rest of the week goes, who knows? With the exception of my 15 mile run planned for the weekend, I'll leave the rest up to fate!

Have a great week everyone!

Madrid Marathon Training: Week 5

2012-02-01T19:32:00.002-05:00

Week 5? Am I really in Week 5? I'm not sure if it's because I didn't post a training recap last week or what but how is it already Week 5?

Training is going fantastic. I really couldn't ask for much in terms of this training cycle. So far, everything just feels so right.

Ally and I are finally starting to talk travel plans now that the Madrid course map has finally been posted.

Let me tell you something, 42.2 kilometers looks a hell of a lot longer than 26.2 miles. This will also be the first marathon I'm running that doesn't have any loops or out and backs, it is a straight 26.2 mile run through the city of Madrid and that.is.awesome.

I can't wait to run here!

So yea, I haven't cross-trained in 2 weeks. Oops. 2 weeks ago, I wasn't feeling so hot on either of my cross-training days so I bailed. Last week, I just didn't get around to it. I have continued strength training and doing some ab work though so I'm not ruling it out completely and hey, I went to ~~the worst yoga class ever~~ yoga tonight so I haven't fallen off the band wagon completely.

Last week should have been a step back week, but since I've been eliminating my Friday runs, it was just a natural build up which is fine. I think I'm going to start adding the extra run in in another few weeks or so but we'll see how I'm feeling. So far, I've felt better than I've ever felt during a training cycle and I really think it's the strength training. My runs feel easy, I never feel sore the next day and I've felt really strong on all of my runs.

I've been looking over my training for MCM the last week and I've realized that I really just wasn't ready for MCM. My training cycle started when I was in India and those few runs I tried to get in while abroad were absolutely impossible. When I got back to the states, I was so jet lagged for a week that it was awhile before I actually started training meaning I was coming off of no running at all and jumping straight into a training cycle. The Staten Island Marathon...which should have been my dress rehearsal run was an absolute nightmare and really just destroyed my confidence. I was on pace for a sub-4 all the way until Mile 25 and I distinctly remember hitting the wall and thinking "This is Staten Island all over again." This time around, I'm much more prepared for my runs and I'm racing a lot less. I turned 2 half-marathons and 2 shorter distance races into long training runs last fall and I just can't do that this time. So far, the only race I have planned is Cowtown, which comes during a week that my training calls for a half-marathon. I think I'm going to be much better prepared for Madrid because of that.

So, here's what this training looks like:

Madrid Marathon Training: Week 5
Total Mileage Last Week: 25
Missed Workouts: 1 - 1 mile time trial
Trouble Spots: None
Planned Mileage This Week: 28

Monday: 4 easy miles
Tuesday: 7 mile hill workout + Yoga
Wednesday: Rest Day
Thursday: 4 miles with 2 miles at MGP
Friday: 13 mile run
Saturday: Rest Day
Sunday: Strength and cross-train

Goals for this Week: Have fun!
Current Annoyances: The MTA's inefficiency
Things to Keep in Mind: Despite lackluster training for MCM, I still PRd by over 5 minutes and came within 2 minutes of my sub-4 goal. I can definitely run a sub-4 race in Madrid.

So there we have it, longer runs and picking up the pace this week. The next three weeks bring me up to 16 miles before stepping back and running the Cowtown Half. I'm picking up the pace on my easy runs and adding in some goal pace runs while continuing to get my hill workouts in. I'm feeling good and strong and with 11 weeks to go, really excited!

A Spontaneous Weekend

2012-01-30T14:45:00.000-05:00

I love spontaneous weekend adventures. While my spontaneous weekends usually take me to 35,000 feet, this weekend, I hung out in the city and had a nice, impromptu weekend here in New York.

On Friday, The Pilot came to see me after work. We found ourselves in Midtown looking to grab drinks but when that fell through, he suggested going to Brooklyn to go have my favorite pizza in New York!

While some might argue that Patsy's is the best pizza in New York...my vote is for Grimaldi's hands down. (There's a fun rivalry between the two places too!) I don't know if it's the coal oven pizza (with sweet red peppers and onions!), the unbelievable cannolis or the absolutely stunning views of Manhattan from the restaurant's exterior, but this place makes the trip to Brooklyn well worth it!

via

After pizza, we headed back to my neighborhood and went to a bar for some drinks. The night ended with us on my couch watching Season 1 of How I Met Your Mother. It was time for me to stop watching reruns of that show and start from the beginning so that I could figure out what the heck was going on!

I had glorious plans of sleeping in on Saturday morning after having worked all of last weekend and up bright and early every day last week but 8:30 rolled around and I was wide awake. After a quick breakfast, I decided to head to Central Park to get my 10 miles in before The Pilot woke up.

When I got back to my apartment, I told The Pilot to find us a nice place for breakfast in the West Village. I love it over there. So off we went to the Bus Stop Cafe...small and cozy with great service and fantastic cappuccinos? Just what I needed after a long run!

On the way back home, we stopped at Magnolia for cupcakes and right after we left Magnolia, we saw Sarah Jessica Parker walking out of her apartment! I'm actually not an SJP fan at all but I thought it was super cool that we saw her after leaving Magnolia.

Yummmmmm

Sunday, I had an all day research symposium at my former/still-go-in-sometimes internship. It was really great and I got to meet some really well-known and respected scholars in my field. After the symposium, I had rehearsal for The Vagina Monologues and then headed to the library where I came home with about 40 pounds worth of books for my thesis research. Yay! *Note the sarcasm.

All in all, it was a great weekend. Fun, spontaneous, sweaty, productive...all the makings of a good weekend in my opinion!

Hope everyone had a good weekend!
Have you ever spotted a celebrity where you live?

Do you have a favorite pizza place in your hometown?

Oh and if you signed up for my Workout Music Swap, here are the pairings:

Ooh Breathe, Just Breathe and Simply Tatum Adelaid

Semi-Charmed Kind of Life and The Perfect Compilation Tape

Dance and Dream 4 Ever and A Day in the Life...

Perfectly Imperfect Holly and 25 Before 25

Skinny Up and Color My World

You have until Monday, February 6 to send out your CDs! Happy Swapping!

Have a great week everyone!

Three Things Thursday

2012-01-26T12:47:00.000-05:00

1. The Vagina Monologues - If you've never heard of it, The Vagina Monologues is a powerful play written by Even Ensler that is performed across college and university campuses across the world in support of V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women and girls. The Vagina Monologues is an incredible production that will leave you with tears of laughter, joy and sadness all in the scope of 2 hours. It's unbelievably powerful and I can honestly say that this production has completely shaped who I am. Growing up, I was actively involved in theater and when I started college, I started as a theater major, but after being cast in The Vagina Monologues my freshman year and subsequently producing/directing it my sophomore year, I took the jump and changed my major to Political Science, with a minor in International Affairs, so that I could devote my career to women's rights issues. It has been 7 years since that first production and now, at the same time that I'm writing a Master's thesis on women's participation in peacebuilding processes in societies transitioning from conflict, I have also been cast in NYU's graduate production of The Vagina Monologues. I'm unbelievably excited to be ending my academic career in the same way I started on this path...with this unbelievable production. If you live in the New York City area and are interested in coming to the show, please let me know. All proceeds benefit the V-Day Campaign, this year's Spotlight Campaign which focuses on women and girls in Haiti, and a local NYC organization that assists victims of domestic violence and sex trafficking. If you're interested in learning more about V-Day, or The Vagina Monologues, check out the website here: http://www.vday.org/home.

2. Madrid Marathon Training - I skipped my Training Tuesday post this week. Honestly, I thought about writing it, but it was just going to come across really whiny so I didn't. So far, things have been going really well but I can't even begin to explain to you how hard it is for me to get in each of my runs. They always say the hardest part about running/working out/etc. is getting out the door. Well for me, it's getting out the door, walking a block to the subway, waiting for the train to come, dealing with the inevitable delays, getting off the subway, walking two blocks to the park, waiting forever for my satellites to load and then starting my run. It's a 45 minute process and I can't stand it. Tuesday, it was 50 degrees outside, and I had wonderful plans of a 5 mile hill workout in Central Park in between an editorial meeting and going to work. I had 2 hours to get in my run. I was 15 minutes late to work because of the insane delays that occurred as a result of all of these things. It was so frustrating. I hate that I can't just lace up and go. Even when I do opt to run around my neighborhood, I can't move more than 2/10 of a mile without being stopped by a traffic light. So, I force myself out the door for my hill workouts and long runs but everything else, I just run on the treadmill. It's boring but it's so much easier and less time consuming. When your training plan calls for 4 miles and it takes you upwards of 30 minutes to get to the park to run, it's not worth traveling all that distance for a run that takes a shorter amount of time than your commute.

This pissed me off more than anything. First, don't mess with Texas. Second, the Olympic Marathon Trials has nothing to do with running in New York...none of the runners who made the Olympic Team are from New York. Third, New York is the probably one of the worst cities to run in. We've got Central Park and the West Side Highway, that's it. But sure, let's go ahead and say that New York is the world's greatest running city on a day that isn't at all about New York

3.Workout Music CD Swap - So far I've had an ok turn out for my Workout Music CD Swap but there's still time to join! I'm leaving it open until tomorrow and on Saturday, I'll post the partners! If you're looking for some new workout music, check it out here!

Work has been crazy this week!

I'm so glad it's almost the weekend!

Do you have any big plans for the weekend?

11 Things

2012-01-22T20:45:00.002-05:00

Last week, Amanda tagged me in a fun little something that's been going through the Blog World. I've seen it creeping up on a few people's blogs and since I was tagged, I decided to join in the fun!

The Rules:
1. You must post the rules.
2. Post 11 fun facts about yourself on the blog post.
3. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post and then create 11 new questions for the people you tagged.
4. Tag 12 people and link them on your post.
4. Let them know you've tagged them!

So, first things first, 11 fun facts about me:

I've been a vegetarian for 5 years.
I've been working for Radio Disney for almost the same amount of time.
I really miss living in Europe.
I'm first generation American. Neither of my parents were born here.
Sometimes I really think I made the wrong decision about which grad school I chose.
When I graduated from college, I sold my car. I don't miss it at all. I'd be OK if I never had to own a car again.
I could live off of a diet of edamame and nutella.Obviously not together.
I haven't left New York in 3 weeks. I think this is the longest stretch of time I've gone without leaving 'home' since my sophomore year of college.
My senior year of college, my university hosted the third and final presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama. Debate Week was the coolest week of my life. They just got chosen to host the 2nd debate between Barack Obama and the GOP nominee this coming October.
About a year after I graduated, my alma mater got rid of its Division I football program. Ever since then, I've pretty much lost all school spirit and 'proud grad' feelings I ever had.
My roommates in college and I had a life size Mr. Peanut as a seventh roommate in our house. Once, he went missing and reappeared on our door step 4 months later. We think the man who lived in our basement stole him.

And now, to answer the questions Amanda sent me to answer:

What's your middle name or initial? Ashley
Where do you want to be in your life when you're 60? Doing exactly the same things I did when I was 20 - Traveling the world, meeting people, eating new foods and living my life all over again!
If you could only have one type of dessert for the rest of your life, what would it be? Nutella...does that count as dessert? I could also go for a really good cheesecake...or some creme brulee...umm i'd rather not have to make this decision!
What do you love most about blogging? Interacting with other people! I love the social aspect of it! I've met so many great people and learned so much about running! Sometimes I wonder if I would have ever actually gone through with running the marathon if I didn't have my blog.
Flats or heels? I tend to wear flats but what girl doesn't love a good heel?
Are you superstitious? No ma'am!
Would you rather work in an office or at home? My dream job would let me do both! Come into the office when I need to and work from home when I need to! Every job I've ever had, I felt like I could be at home doing a lot of this stuff. Ideally, I'd love a job that requires a lot of travel though.
What's your lucky number? I don't have one!
Do you tweet? If not, why not? I was soooo against Twitter for so long but I caved back in August and I think it's actually made my blog friendships so much better!
Do you remember your dreams at night? Always! Last night, I had a dream that I ran the marathon in 4:02...I was so upset when I woke up! I have really vivid dreams...it runs in my family. My mom, sister and I always call each other to tell each other about our dreams. I've been having a lot of dreams that I'm pregnant lately...which is a sign that good things are coming so I'm excited about that!
Are you a momma's girl or a daddy's girl? Mama's girl, all the way.

So now I'm tagging:

Dree @ Defining Dree
Holly @ Perfectly Imperfect Holly
Danielle @ Ooh Breathe, Just Breathe
Katie @ Run This Amazing Day
Rorie @ Imperfect Obsession
Meg @ Life of Meg
Andrea @ East Coast Calling
Emily @ It's not the human walk, it's the human race
Brandy @ Brandy in Boise
Christine @ These Happy Miles
Christine @ Dream Big Runner

And my questions for you are:

How long have you been blogging and what made you start your blog?
What's your favorite way to spend a Saturday and/or day off from work?
Do you wear makeup?
If you could tell your 15-year-old self one thing about where you are now, what would it be?
What's your favorite easy-go-to meal?
Are you a sports fan? What are your favorite sports teams?
Do you like to travel?
If you money were not an object and your boss said to you tomorrow, "Go take a week off and do something fun", where would you go and what would you do?
Do your family/friends know you have a blog? Do they read it?
What's your favorite fashion accessory?
Valentine's Day - yay or nay?

Don't forget to enter my Workout Music CD Swap!

Hope you had a great weekend!

Christy's Workout Music CD Swap!

2012-01-19T09:44:00.000-05:00

If you were to borrow my headphones and take them out for a run or workout, you would hear the following songs on repeat: "Edge of Glory" - Lady Gaga, "S&M" - Rhianna, "Tik Tok" - Ke$ha, and "I Gotta Feelin" - Black Eyed Peas among a shuffle of other songs.

Help! My playlist is trapped somewhere between 2009 and late 2010. I have a few songs that are more recent which I added before Marine Corps but that's only because I've convinced my friend Adam to make me a mix CD before my last 2 marathons and I haven't added anything since then and well, I'm kind of tired of listening to "Don't Stop Believing."

When I graduated from college, I sold my car and moved to Boston. Since then, I haven't listened to a radio. Every time, I've made the trip to DC for another one of my friends' killer parties where DJ Adam (who makes my marathon mix CDs) plays a sweet playlist and I go home and download all of the songs I remember from the party. Once in a while, I'll check out the Billboard Top 40 and go through the songs on their various lists and try to make a playlist but let's face it - balancing school and work has left me little time to do that.

So needless to say, my music playlist is in desperate need of an upgrade.

Do people still listen to Ke$ha?

Is Britney Spears' come back still back?
Is "Firework" still Katy Perry's latest song?

Has Miley come out with anything since "Can't be Tamed?"

I should know the answer to this...

I need to know the answers to these questions people! So I'm hosting a CD swap! Lauren hosted one of these last winter and I got some great tunes from it but clearly haven't done anything since. So I decided to host a swap because while your music needs may not be as dire as mine, I'm sure we'd all like to freshen up our playlists.

Oh man remember these days?

If you're interested in participating, leave a comment with the following information:
1) Your email address
2) Your favorite types of music
3) The one song you can't workout without listening to
I'll try to pair you up with someone with similar music tastes! There will be a 10 song minimum rule and you'll have a week or so to get your CDs out. I'll leave the swap open for about a week or so and then I'll announce your blog swap partners!

The more who participate the better so blog about it, tweet about it, whatever! If enough people participate, I'll give everyone 2 partners!

And in case you're wondering? The one song I can't work out without listening to? "Stronger" - Britney Spears.

Judge me.

Happy Swapping!

Madrid Marathon Training Week 3

2012-01-17T20:34:00.003-05:00

I never had any intention of running a spring marathon. The idea of running through a cold New York winter was just not something I was interested in. My plan was to focus on strength and cross-training, and maybe a late spring half before gearing up to train for the New York City Marathon.

Somehow, a certain Redhead and I got wrapped up in the excitement of the Marine Corps Marathon and registered for Madrid together. Shortly after Ally and I walked away from the Rock n Roll Marathon Series booth at the Marine Corps Marathon Expo, I realized...of course she wanted to sign up for a spring marathon. She lives in Dallas...where the temperatures for the week ahead look like this:

While I live in New York, where the temperatures for the week ahead look like this:

Yea. Let's talk about Saturday when I'll be doing my 12 mile run during this "light, wintry mix" while Ally is gallavanting through the sunshine.

Running in the cold takes a lot. It takes will power and determination and 25 minutes to get dressed so that I can put on spandex, 2 pairs of socks, a pair of leg warmers, a thermal shirt, a long sleeve shirt, a jacket, gloves, a head band and a hat. It takes me suffocating on the subway and then freezing my sweat off for that brutal first 1/2 mile. But then, the realization sinks in that I must really want this if I'm out here running 9 miles through Central Park on a day when the wind chill factor is 11 and snow flurries are falling on my nose. And it's that realization that is going to get me to that sub-4 goal I've been coveting since my marathon career began.

At least I have a cute new Lululemon top to wear from The Pilot.
Too bad I have to throw 17 more layers on top of it before I leave my apartment.

I'm still running 4 miles per week and right now? I don't think I'm going to change that. I like spending my off days cross-training and strength training and building up my strength. I feel so much stronger in these last 3 weeks than I ever have felt in a training cycle and I can directly attribute it to the non-running workouts I've been doing and my dilligence in planning my meals and eating right while still allowing myself to treats like a few beers with friends, an ice cream sandwich or nutella hot chocolate after a run.

I'm still in the early stages of training meaning I'm focusing on 2 easy runs per week with one hill workout and one long run. Next week is meant to be a recovery week before dropping down to 1 easy run per week and adding in some goal pace runs. This is perfect for helping me see where I'm at in order to build a strategy for my next race, the Cowtown Half-Marathon in February. But until then, here's what I'm looking at this week:

Madrid Marathon Training: Week 3
Total Mileage Last Week: 23
Missed Workouts: 0
Trouble Spots: None!
Planned Mileage This Week:

Monday: 5 mile hill run
Tuesday: 3 miles easy + Lower Body Strength
Wednesday: Yoga
Thursday: 5 miles easy + Upper Body Strength
Friday: Cross-train + Lower Body Strength
Saturday: 12 mile run
Sunday: Rest Day

Goals for this Week: Keep it up!
Current Annoyances: The weather.
Things to Keep in Mind: Consistency is key to marathon success. Progression runs aren't meant for hill workouts. Try to focus on maintaing pace instead of pushing the pace until I start incorporating speed work into my training.

There it is, Madrid Week 3. So far, I'm feeling really good about this race. 13 weeks go to!

13 weeks till I'm back in Spain! Ahh!!!

Love/Don't Love

2012-01-16T21:53:00.001-05:00

1. There's a lot to love about today and not a whole lot to not love. Love.
2. I ran a fantastic (although really tough) 5 miles through the hills of Central Park this morning. Love.
3. I spent the rest of the day finishing my latest book (Anna Karenina #48 of 50 on The Book List!), working on my thesis (yay productivity!) and otherwise being lazy while, at the same time, being immensely productive. Love.

Fact: Until I saw this image, I had no idea there was a movie.
And with Vivian Leigh? I have to see it!

4. Both my mom and The Pilot are in Canada this week (not together)...this means I have spent significantly less time glued to my Blackberry as normal. Don't Love.
5. I'm starting to love my new Erin Condren planner. I still wish it was smaller but I love it. Love.

6. Somehow I managed to get honey in my hair while making an afternoon snack of iced green tea with edamame. Don't Love.
7. I have 3 days off this week. Love.
8. I have 3 days off this week because I have to work all weekend. Don't Love.
9. Ever since I started cross and strength-training, I feel so much stronger. This week on the cross training agenda? Swimming and yoga! Love.

Did you have today off for Martin Luther King Jr. Day? What did you do on your day off? Were you lazy? Productive? Did you get in a workout? What are you loving and not loving this week?

Hope your week is fantastic!

Weekends are my Favorite

2012-01-15T18:50:00.001-05:00

Dear 2012,

I think this is the beginning of a wonderful relationship.

Making a New Year's Resolution to get out of my apartment more was the smartest thing I've ever done.

So far, getting out of my apartment more has involved things like professional bull riding, lots and lots of running, a trip to the Museum, cross-training adventures that include spinning, pilates, Fly Barre and soon to be added to the repertoire - yoga.

I've been getting out more, seeing more people and more things and having a blast.

And you know what? Adding strength and cross-training to my 2 week young marathon training schedule has made me feel stronger than ever and that feels awesome.

I've also been getting a lot of sleep and that feels even more awesome.

This weekend has been just as fantastic as last weekend. I kicked off my Friday night with a Flybarre class with Meggie followed by dinner at my favorite Italian go-to spot in New York AND DC. Let me tell you, Flybarre was awesome. It reminded me a lot of the Core Fusion classes at Exhale. I loved everything about this class but it was definitely tough and left me with that oh-so-pleasantly-sore-it-hurts-so-good feeling the next morning that I almost wish I didn't have any willpower so that I could empty out my bank account and go all the time but at $30 a pop, that isn't going to happen any time soon.

Flybarre had great music, a great instructor, and a fantastic challenge and I liked it so much that I might even consider giving spinning another try at Flywheel.

Saturday morning, it was time for long run #2 of Madrid Training so I headed to Central Park for an easy 9 miles. This week's long run felt so much better than last week's...mostly because I bumped into Emily at Mile 4 and she finished my run with me. Long runs go by so much faster when you have a friend to run with! And as much as I hate snow, it was so pretty running on the Reservoir and seeing little snow flurries falling from the sky.

Thankfully the Reservoir did NOT look like this yesterday.

After my run, I came home and ~~made a giant bowl of chili~~ heated up a can of Trader Joe's vegetarian chili (the best thing ever) to warm myself up, spent some time with my foam roller watching the Olympic Marathon Trials then laid in bed reading and working on some job stuff for a few hours before heading out for a night on the town with one of my old college roommates. We watched the Broncos game at a bar in Chelsea and I hung out for awhile before I called it a night. I hadn't seen her in almost 2 years since I was living in Boston so it was great to play catch up.

This morning, I headed to brunch with my newly engaged friend Carolann to play catch up and talk about all things school, work, wedding and relationship-wise. Carolann and I have been friends since college and was/is in a long-distance relationship and we always bonded over that. It was nice to always have a friend who just gets it and I'm super excited for her engagement.

Me, Carolann and our good friend Joe at my graduation party

Now, I'm hanging out watching the Giants game (gross) and taking care of some stuff online. It's been a fantastic weekend! Next weekend, I have to work until 3 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday which is a huge bummer but I'm just as determined to make next weekend as great a weekend as the last two have been!

How did your weekend shape up? Did you do anything fun or exciting? Is it frigidly cold where you are too? How do you feel about the NFL Playoffs? Do you care? My team was out a long time ago and the only other teams I would have liked to see go all the way got knocked out yesterday (Thanks Saints. Thanks Broncos.) So for me, football season is pretty much over.

Is it baseball season yet?

Three Things Thursday

2012-01-12T22:57:00.002-05:00

1. Weekend Wednesdays - This semester, I've decided that Wednesdays will be days off from running and I can use the day to cross-train or take a complete rest day if I start to feel the need for it once I get into heavier speed work. I've also decided to take Wednesdays off from work. I'm fortunate to have the privilege of being able to do that so from here on out, I have dubbed Wednesdays as Weekend Wednesdays. Yesterday was the inaugural Weekend Wednesday. The Pilot had come in on Tuesday night so Wednesday morning, we slept in, ate breakfast and headed to the Museum of Natural History (his first time). We saw some two of their exhibits: Beyond Planet Earth and The Butterfly Conservatory. Both were really fascinating. The Pilot knows a ridiculous amount about space travel and some people gave us free tickets to the butterfly exhibit which was amazing! I'm excited to spend my Wednesdays this semester sleeping in, working on my thesis and exploring the city! It's going to be fun!

Butterflies at their feeding station

2. Erin Condren Planner - On Christmas morning, I woke up to a letter from 'Santa' in my stocking that said, "Pick your planner at Erin Condren." My mom had spent more time than she would have liked scouring the EC website trying to find the right planner for me before giving up and letting me do it myself and I'm happy to say my planner came in last week and so far I really like it. The only downside is that it's a lot bigger than I thought. A lot. There's a video on the EC website that shows how great it is and shows someone carrying it to the gym and to the beach and in all reality, it just isn't that portable. I really like it and the way it functions, but when it comes time to picking a planner in 2013, I may have to reconsider if they don't start offering some smaller sizes. For now though, it'll have to do and I love being able to schedule things in the Morning, Day and Night columns of the week. I also love that there's a To-Do List section so I don't have to carry around a separate To-Do List notebook like I do every day.

The quote I chose for the cover is "Passion is allowing yourself to get lost in something."
It's from Eat, Pray, Love.

Goals and To Do Lists on the side bar, Morning, Day and Night sections each day

3. Cross-Training - It's Week 2 of marathon training and so far, I've been a cross-training machine. Well, not really but I have been doing a lot of it. After trying (and not liking) spinning last week, this week I tried a Pilates class at the Athleta store on the Upper East Side with Emily. It was a great class although a bit too beginner for me. Tomorrow, I'm going to try out Fly Barre with Meggie and I'm hoping to go to a yoga class on Sunday as a post-run recovery though that might be difficult to squeeze in. Either way, I really like exploring different methods of cross-training and I feel like with the added strength training I've been doing, I'm definitely getting stronger! I'm hoping that all of this added exercise will increase my fitness and make for a fantastic finish in Madrid. We'll see!

This is Athleta's UES store. I quite like it.

So tell me: If you had one day a week off every week, what would you do with yourself? Do you have an Erin Condren planner? How do you feel about the size? Love it? Or would you prefer something smaller (or bigger!)? Do you cross-train? Whether you're a runner or not, I want to know what you do to keep yourself in shape! And if you live in New York, let me know what classes I should try out!

Hope your week is going swimmingly!

Madrid Marathon Training Week 2

2012-01-10T17:27:00.003-05:00

Before you go scrolling through my blog looking for Week 1, there isn't one. I wasn't sure if I wanted to write these posts but now I feel like I do because my weekly training posts keep my accountable.

I wasn't smart coming into this training plan. I basically ran Marine Corps, did very little running, ran Philly, did very little running, ran Hot Chocolate, did very little running and wham bam, thank you ma'am I'm training for a marathon again.

So I've got to take it easy. The most important thing about this training plan is that I have to run smart, happy and healthy and recover even smarter, happier and healthier so that I can ease into training for the NYC Marathon. This is my first time running more than 1 marathon in a year and while some people can run 3,4,5+ marathons per year like it's nothing, I'm not one of those people.

8 years ago, I had knee surgery and my knee, while it's taken well to running, is always troublesome for me. Every time it rains, my knee start throbbing, I have a hard time getting out of bed and I can't run. For some ridiculously weird reason, this happens when I'm on my period too. (TMI? Sorry.)

So, I need to be smart about training for this race which meant that when last Friday, my training plan called for 4 miles nice and easy, I bailed because my knee was bothering me and I opted for a non-impact elliptical workout instead rounding out what should have been a 25 mile week with 21 miles.

I'm totally ok with this.

My plan for this training cycle is to run 4 days per week (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday) and if I'm feeling good and up for a run on Friday or a recovery run on Sunday, I'll do it but I'm basing my mileage off of 4 runs per week which is what I did for my first marathon.

For the first 8 weeks, I'll focus on hills: uphills, downhills, repeats, etc. By week 4, I'll start adding in some marathon goal pace runs. I'll close out the first 8 weeks in Texas by running the Cowtown Half-Marathon. For the remainder of my training, I'll swap out hill workouts for speed work but continuing to run the North Side of Central Park where all the hills are since the Madrid course seems to have a bit of a down hill though the official course hasn't been posted.

So that's the plan. I'm also trying to be really good about strength and cross-training during the week and so far, so good. This week's training is very similar to last week's except I'm running 5 miles as my week day runs instead of 4. Here's what it looks like.

Madrid Marathon Training: Week 2
Total Mileage Last Week: 21
Missed Workouts: 1
Trouble Spots: Easing back into it
Planned Mileage This Week: 25

Monday: 4 miles easy + Lower Body Strength
Tuesday: 5 mile hill run + 60 minute Pilates class
Wednesday: Rest Day
Thursday: 5 miles easy + Upper Body Strength
Friday: Cross-Train + Lower Body Strength, optional 5 mile run
Saturday: 9 miles
Sunday: Rest Day

Goals for this Week: Keep it up. Try to get into the pool.
Current Annoyances: Heavy legs and a tight hip flexor
Things to Keep in Mind: It's only Week 2.

So there you have it. Madrid, Week 2. I woke up at 7:00 this morning and rode to Central Park to run that 5 mile hill run. I never do that. This training cycle is going to have a lot of firsts and I'm excited for it.

Dear Madrid, See you in 14 weeks. Love, Christy.

Photos stolen from my friend Jillian'a (formerly of One Little Tri Girl) Facebook page.

Perfect Start to the New Year

2012-01-09T08:00:00.000-05:00

This weekend was pretty perfect.

It was just the right dose of running, sweating, reading, bull riding, craft store shopping and church going.

Let's rewind.

Friday after work, I was feeling kind of off so I decided to skip my run and opt for some sweating on the elliptical followed by an upper body strength session in the weight room. It was surprisingly easy to phone in a run during my first week of marathon training but I think I need to scale my runs back to 4 runs per week if I'm going to strength and cross train as much as I did this past week and plan to for the rest of my training. I trained for my first marathon on 4 runs per week and I know I can do the same this time around...and hey, if a week rolls around and I feel like running more, I will but for now, I'm scaling back and starting slow.

Saturday, I ~~woke up bright and early~~ slept way later than I expected to and after eating a protein and carb packed breakfast while watching episodes of Boy Meets World, I headed out the door shortly before noon to make the trek to Central Park for my first long run of Madrid training.

Goal: 9 miles @ 9:41/pace (just under 1 minute slower than marathon goal pace).
Actual: 9 miles @ 9:51/pace

I'll take it. I felt like crap the first 4 miles of the run. I was lightheaded and hot and the run just felt hard. I hadn't run in Central Park in over 2 months (yea, that's how much I hate taking the 20-minute subway ride there and back). Somewhere around mile 4.5, I started feeling better and I picked up the pace a little bit. Instead of doing a full loop around the park, I just did 4.5 miles out and back...which was tough since I think the back was tougher hill-wise then the out.

So I finished, and I'm proud of myself for doing so. I haven't lost it...despite this being my longest run since the Hot Chocolate 15k. This week's plan is basically a repeat of the past week's. Another 9 miles which will hopefully feel easier than yesterday's before moving on to some higher mileage.

When I got home, I basically passed out after lunch and then spent the rest of the day in bed reading "Anna Karenina" until I forced myself out of bed to get ready for the PBR Invitational at Madison Square Garden.

Now, PBR stands for two things in life: Pabst Blue Ribbon and Professional Bull Riding. And while I'm pretty sure that my former self could very well have been invited to compete in an invitational of the former, this was a straight up bull riding tournament.

I've been helping out with some stuff at my former internship this week and during our lunch break, some of the guys at work mentioned that they all wanted to go. What they didn't realize was that I'd been itching to go for awhile but didn't have anyone to go with because well, the vast majority of New York City isn't interested in professional bull riding. Shocking, I know.

So I pulled my Justin's out of the closet (fresh from a trip to Nashville), and made my way to The Garden.

I've been to my fair share of rodeos but never to a strict bull riding event so this was awesome...and Madison Square Garden? Was sold out.

Yup, that's right. I've said it before and I'll say it again. You can take the girl outta the honkey tonk but you can't take the honky tonk outta the girl.

Somehow after all ~~those beers~~ that excitement, I was in bed by a normal hour. I slept in again on Sunday and after breakfast, made my way to the craft store to pick up some things for a DIY project I'm starting this week. I spent the rest of the day cleaning my apartment, watching movies, catching up on blogs and going to church.

So that was my weekend. How did your weekend shape up? I think my New Year's Goal of leaving my apartment goal is definitely a success so far! How are your New Year's Resolutions coming along? Are you sticking with them? Or are they already out the window?

Have a great week!

Three Things Thursday

2012-01-05T18:26:00.000-05:00

1. Marathon Training - Oh man it feels good to write that on the blog! That's right! This week marks Week 1 of training for the Madrid Marathon! I could not be more excited to be traveling back to Spain to run a marathon! Carbo loading with wine, tapas, paella and my Texan sister from another mister? Count.Me.In. As of now, I've decided to stick with running 5x a week so this week calls for 3 easy runs of 4 miles, 1 hill workout and a long run of 9 miles. I'm trying to be serious about strength and cross training this week so I've done a Jillian Michaels' DVD, a spin class (see below) and an upper body strength training session. Not too shabby! I'm undecided as to whether I'm going to go back to my routine of 'Training Tuesday' posts. They were really beneficial for me to process how my training was going and to get advice from the other marathoners out there (especially Celia) but I haven't decided yet. We'll see. Either way, I will keep you posted about how my training for Madrid is going because I can't freaking wait to tackle Marathon #3 and my big sub-4 goal in SPAIN!

via

2. Spinning - Last night, Emily and I took a trip over to Soul Cycle to try out a spin class. I had never taken any kind of indoor cycling class before and decided to go to "the best" for my first experience with spinning. Soul Cycle has gotten some serious hype from magazines, celebrities, TV shows, etc. so I thought it would be a great place to take my first class. My overall take - I didn't really like it. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing...and the fact that the lights were off almost the whole class, meant I couldn't look at other people to try and figure it out...and the music was awful. I'm talking late 90s/early 00's rap mixed in with the latest house music. I wasn't feeling it...at all...and you know what? I didn't feel like it was that great of a workout. I just sweated a lot and I'm sore in a region that I really would prefer to not be sore in from sitting on the bike. During the weights portion (yes, you do reps with light weights and crazy things like sit-ups and push-ups on the bike), I just kept sliding off my seat and I felt like every time I stood up in the bike, I was going to fly out of my clip-in shoes because my knees would buckle in some really awkward way. Long story short - spinning is not for me. I would consider trying it again if I had a more newbie-friendly instructor and better music but at $32 per class? I won't be back to Soul Cycle?

The Soul Cycle studio

3. The Book and Movie Lists - If you've taken a close look at my blog lately, you'll notice that I changed my goal from reading 100 books and watching 100 movies before my 25th to 50 of each. Why? Well, for starters, my birthday is in 6 weeks so I know that's just not going to happen and even though I've kind of given myself the extension of doing all of some of these things at 25, I've nixed the Book and Movie lists because well, I haven't liked the majority of the movies I've watched...with the exception of The Prestige...that movie was phenomenal...and the reason I haven't actually sat down to watch a lot of them is because they just don't seem like interesting movies to me. The same goes for The Book List. I've loved some of the books I've read on this list...Pride and Prejudice, War and Peace, Gone with the Wind? But others? Have just been terrible and I really love to read so I want to go back to reading books that I want to read. I'll definitely continue reading some of those books beyond the 50 but I'm not aiming to read all of them anymore.

That's all I've got for you today. Tell me: How has your week been? Have you ever been to a spin class? Did you like it? Have you tried Soul Cycle? Do you like reading? What are you reading these days?

I'm working late tonight and then I'm going to go home and cuddle up with my current read: Anna Karenina...which is on the list but which I love.

Have a great weekend y'all!

The Promise of a New Tomorrow

2012-01-02T15:03:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I wrote about how much I love the New Year and making goals and lists and the promise of a new tomorrow. I listed a lot of abstract things I want to do this year to make 2012 awesome. In 2008, I had just come back to the US from having the best time of my life being abroad in Geneva and London and traveling all over Eastern and Western Europe in the mean time. My 2008 New Year's Resolution was simple: make 2008 better than 2007...and boy, oh boy it was.

2009 was an alright year. 2010 wasn't bad. 2011 was pretty good. 2012 is going to be even better. Aside from the abstract, random things I want to do like continue to eat as much Nutella as I can stomach and to continue taking spontaneous, out-of-the-blue trips like those to Houston and Minneapolis, I have a few concrete things I'd like to try to do over the course of 2012.

1. Try a spin class. I need to find out what the hype is all about...and maybe spinning will get me to finally attempt a triathlon. We'll see.

via I probably will not look like this when I am spinning.

2. Do more yoga. I did a fair amount of yoga last year but all of the moaning at Yoga to the People creeps me out and I don't really have the money to throw around on expensive yoga classes but I am a pro at finding free yoga classes in the city, so I'm going to attempt to incorporate more yoga into running regiment. I would like to be able to be more flexible...and be able to touch my toes.
3. Leave my apartment more. This may come as a shock to some of you, but I can essentially go an entire week without ever leaving my apartment and still do everything I need to do. I work in my building, I work out in my building, I study in my building, I eat in my building...you get the picture. Since I'm not taking any classes this semester, my plan is to get out more...and not just to hop on a plane somewhere or go to the grocery store (which is also absurdly close)...but to actually go out and do things and stop being a hermit.
4. Finish my college scrapbook. This is on my 25 Before 25 list and well, I haven't done a heck of a lot with it. I finished my first year and am up to about about half way through the first semester of my sophomore year and senior year...but I need to just buckle up and do it...and then start putting the last 3 years of my life into photo albums.

via

5. Get The Pilot to run a race with me. This is simple. I think I've convinced him to run a half with me...but he wants to choose which one. Fair...although I think that caveat is what's keeping us from actually registering. It doesn't have to be a half, but I'd like us to run a race together. I think it would be fun...even though sometimes when we go running, he kind of hates me a little bit.
6. See the rest of the ballparks. I'm at 15 1/2 (Minneapolis counts as the 1/2). I'd like to try and see the rest of them. I don't think this will be tremendously difficult since I'm not planning to spend my summer traveling around the world this year. We'll see.
7. Go to an NFL game. Preferably the Jets.
8. Visit my BFF in Kentucky/Cincinnati. She just moved out there and I haven't seen her in almost a year and a half because for the last 4 years or so, she's been living 4 1/2 hours from the nearest airport. Now, she lives miles from the nearest airport. There also happens to be a baseball team in Cincinnati so this will be happening. Most likely in spring time.
9. Do something big to celebrate my birthday. I don't make a big deal out of my birthday...ever. When I was 15, I stopped celebrating it all together until I turned 21 when my friends decided that I had to do something big. I think 25 years is a big deal and I'm proud of having done so much in my short 25 years on earth, so I'd like to do something big to celebrate...I have no ideas for this whatsoever, so feel free to throw some my way.

source unknown

10. Read more books that I want to read, not that have to read. I recently amended The Book List from reading the top 100 books to 50 of the top 100. Why? Well, aside from the fact that it's impossible for me to read 50 more books before February, there have only been a handful of those books that I've enjoyed and as a result, I've skipped out reading books that I genuinely want to. I miss going to the book store and just perusing the shelves for my next read.
11. Read the newspaper more. I'm a big slacker on this and I love reading the paper so I need to start reading it more.
12. Move out of New York. This is the big one. It's no secret that I don't like New York. Actually, I kind of hate it. There really aren't a lot of things about this city that I like and I just don't want to live here anymore. A lot of this is going to be contingent on where/when/if I get a job come May so we'll see what happens there but if I only accomplish one of my goals this year, I want it to be this one.

I got really excited about the fact that I wrote this out and have 12 goals for 2012...and then I realized I have one more...so we'll say this one is "one for good measure."

13. Run a sub-4 hour marathon. I have two chances. Madrid and New York City. I ran a 4:03 at Marine Corps. I can totally do this.

So that's that. My goals for 2012. There are 365 days left in the year (it's a Leap Year!) and I've got big plans ahead. It's the promise of a new tomorrow and I can't wait for it.

What are your plans for 2012?

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T16:25:00.000-05:00

Last night I went to bed at 10:30pm. I rang in the New Year in my bed.

Not my finest moment, that's for sure.

A 28 hour trip to Chicago will do that to you. But it was a fantastic 28 hour trip to Chicago.

This morning, I stayed in bed reading. I had brunch with my mom and then I went to church. I made a quick trip to Target and didn't buy anything...that's got to be some kind of record, right? I spent the afternoon watching movies and reading blogs and did a workout DVD...no running for me today. Marathon training starts tomorrow.

I love the New Year. I love the anticipation of looking forward to 12 months of achieving goals, making plans and using every single day as an opportunity to learn something new.

This year, I will turn 25. I will finish my Master's degree. I will start my career. I will run a sub-4 hour marathon. I will run 2 marathons. I will I will take chances and give everything I've got to everything I do.

I will keep traveling. I will try new things. I will eat at least one piece of fruit a day. I will continue to eat as much Nutella as I do now. I will make new friends and meet new people. I will have fun.

Whether you're making resolutions or not, whether you're looking forward to the New Year or not, I hope you take it as an opportunity to do something exciting. Take that trip you've always wanted to go on. Call someone you've lost touch with. Take chances. Don't have regrets. It's those chances that make your life the adventure you were meant to live...and it's those chances that make for the best blog posts.

Happy New Year!
I hope 2012 is everything you want it to be and more!

December Recap

2011-12-31T17:38:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year!

This week, I've loved going through and reading everyone's 2011 recaps and 2012 goals and resolutions. I love the promise of what the new year brings and I love that so many are embracing it as a time for change. December has been a busy month. I spent hours upon hours writing papers finishing up the semester but it was well worth it. It never fails though, no matter how much of a head start I give myself on paper writing, I always end up working down to the wire to finish everything up. Luckily, I won't have that problem anymore since this semester was my last semester of course work before I enter my thesis semester and finish my degree.

I traveled a lot this month...mostly unintentionally. Between the Hot Chocolate 15k in DC, heading home for the holidays, a spontaneous trip to Minneapolis, Christmas in Nashville and now, being in Chicago, I've definitely been on more planes than I expected to this month, but I love it! People always ask me if I get tired of traveling...my answer? How can you ever get tired of traveling? Sure, plane rides can be exhausting but I don't let travel stress me out. It's all part of the adventure. Don't get me wrong, I've had my share of unpleasant travel experiences including nights spent in airports, wallets stolen on planes, and missed connections (all this year too!) but as they say, "a life without travel is a life unlived" so I take it all in stride.

Aside from traveling a lot, I was busy working away at my list as always. In the month of December, I:

Read 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1 and Peter, 1, 2 and 3 John, Jude and Revelations thus finishing the Bible in exactly one year, as planned, and crossing off #5 from my list!
Finished my last semester of graduate coursework! Only my thesis stands between me and a Master's Degree!
Visited Target Field...even though it doesn't really count.
Read the book "Sons and Lovers" off The Book List.
Watched the movies "Inception," "It's a Wonderful Life" and "The Godfather II" (which I hated

Well, it's 2011 for another 6 hours or so. I got back from Chicago about 3 hours ago and now, I'm spending a quite New Year's Eve at home. Not the way I would have like to have spent New Year's Eve but after all the travel I've been doing the last week or so, I think I need a quiet night in!

I hope those of you out ringing in the New Year have a happy, safe and fun New Year and I hope 2012 brings you all the best!

See you next year!

2011 Year in Review

2011-12-29T09:00:00.000-05:00

Another New Year is upon us and as I did last year, I'd like to take a moment to reflect on the past year in preparation for looking forward to the next year.

2011 was a great year. There were, as always, ups and downs, but for the most part, I was really lucky to have such a great year.

So without further ado, here are my Best of 2011 Moments.

*Starting off the New Year in Florida with The Pilot in January*

*Going sub-2 at the New York City Half Marathon in March*

*Boston Marathon weekend*

*Finishing the spring semester and spending another 3 weeks in Florida with The Pilot in May*

*Taking off on my round-the-world adventure trip to The Netherlands, Bosnia, Serbia, Italy and India*

*Coming Home*

*The Pilot moving back*

*PR-ing the Half Marathon and Marathon distance in October*

*PR-ing yet again at the Philadelphia Half-Marathon*

*Anniversary Weekend in Maine*

*Christmas*

Looking back, it really was an exciting year. I made a lot of new friends and I think I accomplished a lot. 2012 will bring with it thesis writing, more world adventures, graduation, and job searching...perhaps the most daunting task of the coming year. It will also bring marathons, half-marathons and more PRs (hopefully!), crossing things off The List, living life to its absolute fullest and turning 25!

My New Year's Resolutions are simple: to (1) run strong, happy and injury-free (2) get a job upon graduating (3) move out of New York City (3) be spontaneous (as if I didn't do that enough already) (4) try new things (5) live happy.

Life is too short to be anything but happy.

How did your year shape up?

Are you making resolutions for the New Year?

So this is Christmas

2011-12-27T11:59:00.000-05:00

I think I was on the "Nice List" this year.

Surprisingly, I had a pretty great Christmas.

I had to work up until Friday afternoon and luckily, my mom lives just a short train ride away from the city in New Jersey, so I was out of work and home in less than 2 hours on Friday. My mom and I popped open some wine coolers and had lunch before I got dressed and headed over to The Pilot's house for Christmas with his family.

We had organized a Secret Santa between the six of us (The Pilot, his brother, sister and each of their significant others.We drew names at Thanksgiving and arranged it so that none of us could get ourselves or our significant others. It ended up being pretty funny because we got his brother and his wife, they got his sister and her boyfriend, who in turn got The Pilot and me. So all of the couples ended up with each other. I got an awesome new Nike running shirt from his sister and his mom bought me the most beautiful coat that I've been eying for months. Best part? She had no idea.

My new coat!

The Pilot had an early trip out on Saturday morning so he missed Christmas with my family. We celebrated Noche Buena with roast pork, rice and beans, mashed yuca, guayaba pasteles and rum punch. And because roast pork only comes once a year, this vegetarian of 5 years digged in and had a little bit of the Christmas pig. After dinner, we opened presents.

I was really excited about the presents I got my nieces. Let me tell you, Christmas is way more fun when there are little kids around. They loved their presents and I actually enjoyed Christmas this year because of them.

After everyone left, my mom and I decided to go to Midnight Mass. It was...ok. I used to love going to church but ever since the Catholic church decided to completely change everything about Mass, I'm finding it a lot harder to enjoy Mass.

Anyway, Christmas morning, I woke up and opened presents from "Santa" with my mom. We drank mimosas and ate cinnamon rolls...always a holiday tradition at my house. My mom is amazing and got me the best presents, including, a gorgeous Coach bag so that I have a nice, professional looking purse when I start interviewing for jobs this spring.

Coach!

After we opened presents, I went for a quick run and headed to the airport to board a flight for Nashville!

My handsome Pilot and I

This wasn't really an oops, but kind of! The Pilot had to work Christmas and I didn't want him to have to spend Christmas alone so I met him at the airport and hopped on his flight to Nashville so that we could spend Christmas together. I had made us reservations at the Gaylord Opryland for dinner and we had so much fun exploring the hotel and then ate the most incredible dinner either of us had ever had.

Christmas Decorations outside the Gaylord

Beautiful!

Old Hickory Steakhouse...where we ate for Christmas dinner!

When we got back from dinner, The Pilot and I exchanged gifts. He got me some fantastic Lululemon winter running gear and I got him the new Kindle Fire. I was so excited to see how surprised he was with his gift. It totally made my Christmas. After exchanging gifts, we passed out and woke up at 4:30 the next morning so that he could continue his trip and I could make the trek back to Newark. I spent the day with my mom lounging around watching movies and then he came over and set up his new Kindle Fire. Mom and I watched "It's a Wonderful Life" which I can now cross off The Movie List and I absolutely loved it.

Yesterday, I went to the movies with my sister and her two girls and The Pilot and I spent the day at the movies

Today, I'm back at work. It's absurdly quiet at my office today which I'm thrilled about. I'm here until tomorrow and them I'm off again for New Year's weekend. I'm trying to follow The Pilot on another trip this weekend to go spend some time in Chicago with him and my two favorite newlyweds. We'll see where the rest of the weekend takes me! Then, it's time to bring 2012 into full swing with training for the Madrid Marathon, writing my thesis and planning my world adventures for the New Year!

I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and I hope Santa was good to you.
How did you spend the holiday?

Three Things Thursday

2011-12-21T23:55:00.002-05:00

1. Christmas Plans - This weekend is Christmas? Woah. When did that happen? I hate it when Christmas falls on a weekend. It always goes by too fast. I'm working tomorrow morning and headed to New Jersey early afternoon. I think the plan for tomorrow night is to exchange Secret Santa gifts with The Pilot and his siblings. I got his brother and I'm pretty excited to give him his gift. Saturday is Noche Buena (aka Christmas Eve), so my family will be eating roast pork, arroz con frijoles negos and lots of other goodies. I will drink my weight in Soy Nog and we'll exchange family presents. We don't do much of anything on Christmas morning so aside from having a brunch of cinnamon rolls and mimosa with my mom, I'm hoping to hop on a plane and meet The Pilot at his Christmas night layover so he doesn't have to spend Christmas night alone. We'll see if I can get on a flight and where I end up so stay tuned next week for another..."Oops, I went to..." post. =)

2. Running/Training Update - It's hard to believe the end of the year is here. I've had an *awesome* year of training and I'm excited to start training for my next big race(s). I'm aiming for big PRs at both the Cowtown Half and the Rock 'n' Roll Madrid Marathon. I haven't finished my training plan yet but I'm working off an amended version of the plan I've used for my last two marathons. My first marathon training cycle, I ran 4 days a week and for Marine Corps, I ran 5 days a week. This time, I'm thinking about alternating weeks of 4 days and 5 days and on the 'lighter' weeks, doing more strength and cross training. Has anyone done anything like this? I haven't seen it anywhere, it's just something I'm thinking about trying.

3. INC NYC Marathon - Remember when I wrote this post? I calculated the cost of running the New York City Marathon through the 9+1 guaranteed entry option and said that if I were ever to want to run the marathon again, I would do it via charity option because those 9 races really add up. Well, New York Road Runners went ahead and announced today that registration for the 2012 New York City Marathon would open up on January 2. They announced that this year's race would cost $216 in addition to an $11 processing fee. $227? It was $156 last year. That's a $71 price hike from last year. Where the hell do they get off charging this kind of money. Quite frankly, it pisses me off. It makes me have serious doubts about running the race itself. I don't even like New York and probably won't be living here next year so it will cost me a lot more than just that. But then there's the whole...I ran 9 races and I'm not going to let it go to waste and I have this Bucket List goal of running all 5 of the marathon majors and who knows...if I wait and decide to run it later, it will probably cost $300. It just makes me so mad that New York Road Runners would turn around and capitalize off of the fact that so many more people want to run these days. They already went and changed all of their guaranteed entry options making it nearly impossible to get into the race that I feel like they're just taking advantage of people at this point. I can now say for sure that I will be a one and DONE New York City Marathoner. I won't support a company that is only out to take advantage of its customers. I understand that price increases are necessary in some cases but $71 in one year? Times $45,000 runners? That's more than $3 million. Actually it's more than that because that's only the price increase for NYRR members. If you're not a member, it's $255...if you're from out of the country it's $347. That is disgusting.

Sorry for my mini-rant there...and sorry it's not the first time I've ranted about NYRR.
Now, tell me: How are you spending the holidays weekend? Will you be starting off the new year with a training plan for a big race? Have you run the NYC Marathon? How do you feel about the price hike? Would you pay $227 to run a marathon?

Have a great night!

Oops...I went to Minneapolis!

2011-12-21T11:14:00.000-05:00

Hello and welcome to another edition of "Oops, I spontaneously traveled somewhere."

Confession: My last few "Oops" posts weren't really "Oops." Well, not all of them. when I went to Texas in August, that was a total oops...especially since I had taken a vow against traveling for at least 2 months. My 2nd Oops trip to Texas wasn't an oops at all...I just hadn't told y'all about it. Maine? Wasn't really an oops although we had decided to take the trip less than 48 hours before takeoff.

This? Was definitely an Oops.

Let's back track to Monday. I had been anxiously awaiting news for almost a week that still hadn't come. When the news finally came, it wasn't good news at all. Something I really wasn't expecting. I was devastated. I spent the next few hours in tears questioning a lot of things about the next few months. At 2:00, I was still in my pajamas and still hadn't eaten breakfast.

The Pilot texted me around 6:30 from Jacksonville and said that he was about to fly to Newark and then to Minneapolis. I said, Hey! You're coming to Newark? I want to see you. I knew he would probably be in Newark for all of 20 minutes so this was very much a joke. But he turned around and said, "Do you want to come? The flights to MPS and back are wide open."

There was one small issue. I had to work on Tuesday. I texted my boss and said...Hey, if I stay late Wednesday and Friday, can I take tomorrow off? Her reply? Yes, you deserve it. Go do something fun.

15 minutes later I was dressed, packed and on my way to the airport.

By 9:00, I was standing in the cockpit flirting with the pilot...The Pilot...my pilot.15 minutes later, I was sitting in my seat and my very own boyfriend came over the loudspeaker and said, "We're number 3 for takeoff." This was the first time I've ever flown with him commercially and it was the most exciting thing ever.

So I went to Minneapolis. We landed around 1am and checked into the very...very nice crew hotel. The hotel was right downtown and our room was super nice. Since it was late, we went straight to bed, woke up the next morning and started our adventure!

Beautiful!

First up? The Mall of America! We found the Light Rail quite easily and hopped on it to the MOA. Holy goodness, y'all. I don't know if any of you have ever been to the Mall of America but it is insane! Wikipedia says that 7 Yankee Stadiums can fit inside the mall...now, I don't believe that for a second but wow. This place was huge. They have an aquarium, a bowling alley and a theme park inside.

An Ugly Christmas Sweater store...for all your Ugly Christmas sweater needs

I LOVE The Pilot for spending so much time in this store with me...reliving all of my childhood.

At Nickelodeon Universe...I have a major crush on Pablo from The Backyardigans.

A wedding chapel...I'm not kidding.

See what I mean? They have everything.

After spending the day shopping, we made our way out to Target Field because well, if you don't recall Minneapolis has a baseball team! Unfortunately, the Twins ballpark only does tours through November so we couldn't actually check it out but we roamed around, took some pictures and stopped in the Team Store so that I could pick up my pin (which I collect from every ball park I visit). I'm gonna go and say that yes, I have been to Target Field but I 'm not going to write up a "Ballpark #16" recap because it wouldn't be fair to judge the Twins on looking at their stadium from the outside. So, come back during baseball season for that because I loved the Minne-Apple (such a cute name!) and will definitely be back.

MLB's newest ball park...well until the season starts up again.

The Golden Glove!

We had a little bit of time to spare before we needed to be back to the hotel so naturally, we went to Target Headquarters. Meh, I wasn't that impressed to be honest. I've seen nicer Targets. Although we did accidentally walk in through the corporate section and the corporate office has its own personal Target store...and THAT looked nice.

After Target, we went back to the hotel so The Pilot could put on his fancy uniform and we could head back to the airport. A few hours later, I was nestled all snug in my bed recapping my amazing super spontaneous trip to Minneapolis in my head...and had completely put the bad news from the day before behind me.

So tell me: Have you ever been to Minneapolis? Did you go to the Mall of America? What's the most spontaneous thing you've done lately?

Love/Don't Love

2011-12-19T12:21:00.000-05:00

Hello out there! Remember me? I unintentionally disappeared since my last post as I was busy finishing the semester and *trying* to get into the "holiday spirit." Today, I'm back to my regularly scheduled programming beginning with your weekly dose of "Love/Don't Love."

1. I submitted my last take home final on Saturday and have officially finished my last semester of graduate coursework! Love.
2. I've officially made the decision to delete Facebook. I don't trust it anymore and I think this new timeline thing makes it difficult to read. Don't Love.
3. Last week, I also got official approval of my thesis topic and permission to apply for graduation! Love.

via

4. This weekend is Christmas. Don't Love.
5. Once I get my nearly 3,000 pictures off Facebook and can finally delete it, I can put get a move on finishing my college scrapbook. Love.
6. The Pilot won't be home for Christmas. Don't Love.
7. After 11 months of reading the Bible, I finally found my favorite book. With just 12 days left in my reading plan to read the Bible through in one year, I finished the Book of Hebrews this morning and loved it. Love.

via

8. I watched Inception last night. It was pretty good. I hate when people hype up movies to the absolute extreme because I honestly expected this movie to blow me away with how good it was based on the way people talk about it. It was a good movie, but I don't think it lived up to its hype. Don't Love.

What are you loving and not loving about today?

Apartment Tour!

2011-12-13T22:59:00.001-05:00

It's been 4 months since I moved into my apartment and I've been holding off on posting a virtual tour of my place until I was 100% happy with it.

Well, 4 months later I've realized I don't quite have the budget to be 100% happy with it, so today, I'm welcoming you into my humble little apartment so you can get a taste of what my life looks like.

I love my apartment. I got so lucky when I was offered a position within the university that pays for my housing because let's face it, make fun of Jimmy McMillan all you want but the rent is too damn high and one of the biggest reasons why I want to leave New York so badly. It's disgusting how much it costs to live in New York. Remember my apartment last year?

I paid $1000 a month not including utilities to live in that space. It was a 5 floor walk up. It was 11x7. I had no closet. I had 3 roommates, one of whom had a live-in boyfriend. I had no space and no privacy and I was miserable. I have friends who pay less than that on the mortgages of their 3 bedroom houses.

So the fact that I don't pay rent makes me one less angry New Yorker. And my space? Pretty nice if you ask me.

The Living Room
This is the living room. When you walk into the apartment, you walk right into the living room. It's a living/dining space which is pretty comfortable. Yes, my TV is tiny. The Pilot complains about it all the time. As you can see, my pictures all shattered and fell and I haven't gotten around to replacing them yet. I really like my living room, the only thing missing is a nice, comfy rug!

This picture makes me miss London every day.

As you can see out the window, my view is of the Courtyard of our building and the opposite end of the building. I love not having a front facing apartment, I don't know why everyone goes nuts over front facing apartments...they're so loud!

This is my "bar." Fancy right?

The Bathroom
When you walk into the apartment, you walk into the living room and the bathroom and kitchen are on the left and right, respectively.

Not much to talk about here.

The Kitchen
This is my kitchen. Sad to say, it's actually huge compared to what I had in Boston. No complaints about it though. I wish my sink was a little bigger and I would like some more counter space but hey, it does the job.

The Bedroom
I love my bedroom. It's very cozy. It has a huge window the same size as the one in the living room so there's a lot of natural light. The overhead lights aren't the brightest and unfortunately, I can't change that. So I need to get another lamp or two to light up my desk space some more but I love coming home and sitting on my bedroom couch to read or at my computer to blog (I never do homework in my room) or to just lay in bed and veg out.

I desperately need something over this wall. I'm thinking my "Where I've Been" map when I finish it!

The Closet
And this is my closet. It's nice, big and spacious and has a light. Unfortunately I don't have a lot to put in it. If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I hate my wardrobe and desperately need a new one.

So that's my apartment! Let me know what you think!

Love/Don't Love

2011-12-12T22:37:00.002-05:00

1. After 4 days of being locked inside my apartment and only leaving my building once to go for a run, I finished and submitted my 2 final papers and presented one of them in class tonight. Love.
2. I still have one take home final to write before I can say I'm free. Don't Love.
3. Despite devoting my entire weekend to writing over 50 pages on human trafficking, refugee crises and complex emergencies, I really enjoyed doing the research which is just further proof that I'm doing pursuing the right career. Love.
4. I went to bed at 5am last night, 1am the night before and 3:30am the night before that. To say I'm exhausted would be a huge understatement. Don't Love.
5. Tomorrow night is the office holiday party for my internship. Even though I don't technically work in the office anymore, I've still been working with them on a research project so I'm excited to see everyone and get all dressed up. Love.

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6. I started Christmas shopping on Amazon during various study breaks this weekend and when I went on last night to actually buy everything, everything in my shopping cart had doubled in price. I'm so pissed! How does that happen? Don't Love.
7. While I haven't actually started shopping, I have a pretty good idea of what I want to get everyone for Christmas. Now that all of the stress of school is done, I can start decorating, baking and shopping! Love.
8. I didn't get into the lottery for the Cherry Blossom 10-miler. Don't Love.

Happy Monday y'all!

It doesn't feel like Monday to me but maybe that's because I had no weekend!
I'm off to clean my messy apartment and go to bed!
Have a great week!

Holiday Wish List

2011-12-09T10:22:00.001-05:00

And by Holiday, I mean Christmas.

Christmas lists have been popping up all over the blog-o-sphere and my mom, sister and boyfriend have all asked me: "When are you going to put your Christmas list on your blog?" Woah, sorry guys, I've been writing papers. Since I put one up last year, the assumption that I would do so again this year was there...well, ok then.

So I'm taking a short break from paper writing to bring you my Christms list.

Starting in January, I'll be slaving away at my computer writing my Master's thesis and training for my third marathon. 60-80 pages of thory, stats, data and research on post-conflict development and setting my sites on crushing a 4:00 marathon is going to require some kind of serious organization if I'm going to balance the two while also working and searching for a career. Introduce, a really expensive but extremely functional planner:

They're personalized...I die.

Holly posted about her love for her new Erin Condren planner awhile back and when I saw the price tag, I kind of spit my apple juice out of my mouth. But it's gotten rave reviews, comes in adorable designs and might be the most amazing planner I've ever seen. My sister can attest for our mutual loves of all things organization so this might also reach the top of her Christmas list.

If you read Meggie's blog, you'll know about her love for the Believe I Am Training Journal which takes your workouts to a new level. I watched the video that Lauren Fleshman and Roisin McGettigan put together on the planner and it looks like a pretty awesome way to track your workouts.

The Believe I Am Training Journal

Now, if I'm going to have these 2 awesome planners, I'm going to need a pretty purse to put them in. Fact: I am terrible at shopping and don't own a real purse. Not ok. I'm about to be 25. I need to start looking like an adult. When The Pilot and I were in Maine, we went to the Coach outlet and I fell in love with a bag that I seriously regret not buying.

The Chelsea Signature Tote...classt and elegant

I want a nice, real handbag that I can start wearing with my imaginary adult clothes so that when I start interviewing for jobs and such, I can look more like an adult. And since my wallet got stolen in India, I wouldn't mind having a nice wallet to go inside said bag.

And of course to go with my hand bag, I need a pair of black pumps which apparently have gone out of style. Seriously, Thanksgiving weekend I went all over the world trying to find a pair of black pumps with a respectable heel that I could wear to DC last weekend for the business-related things I needed to do there.

Plain, simple pumps. I don't want them too pointy because I'm not an elf and I don't want them too low because I'm not 85. I just want a pair of black high heels, why are they so difficult to find? Macy's, Nordstrom's, DSW...nothing. Seriously, someone tell me...have they gone out of style?

You know what else I want? A nice pair of earrings. I'm allergic to everything but gold and surgical steel which means that I own 1 pair of earrings. Yes, 1. A small pair of diamond studs and they're the only things I can wear. I'd love a pair of diamond teardrops that I can wear to fancier occasions like nice dinners or the number of weddings The Pilot and I are going to next year.

These are beautiful.

And since I'll be training for my 3rd marathon this winter, and racking up some serious bling in the process, I need somewhere to hang my medals. Currently, they're in a drawer which makes me sad. I have my Philly and Marine Corps medals out but the rest of them are tucked away. I've seen these Allied Medal Displays on a number of blogs and have tried to win a few but to no luck. I would love to hang this in my apartment to give me extra motivation to get out and run when its 22 degrees outside and I'm training to crush sub-4 in one of the hilliest cities in Europe.

Speaking of running, who doesn't love running gear? I saw this Lulu handheld the other day and thought it was awesome...very practical for shorter runs.

Lululemon is that store that I love but just can't afford. I love this pull over and think it would be perfect for some of those warmer days in January (by warm, I mean 30 degrees, rather than 15) when you don't want too many layers on.

And for when I get home form those runs and I'm loading up on carbs and nutella hot chocolate to warm up, I wouldn't mind a nice cozy pair of fleecy sweat pants to warm up in while I watch movies and curl up with books because one of my New Year's Resolutions is to relax after all of my long runs, instead of rushing back to study again. I think I can take one day a week to myself to enjoy a nice, long run and then read or watch movies all day before hitting the books again the next day.

There's a strong likelihood I'll be doing a lot of international travel next semester. Aside from my trip to Madrid, I've also applied to a short-term study abroad program and am trying to plan a trip back to Africa to do some of my thesis research. And since we're 4 months away from baseball season and I still have 15 ball parks to cross off my list, 2012 is going to be a year of serious travel for me. I'm all set in the luggage department but I'm desperate for a new toiletry bag. And you know, since I'm slightly obsessed with the show Pan Am, I absolutely fell in love with these "Wash Bags." Functional yes, practical for a trip to Africa...maybe not. But hey, at least they're cute?

So that's that. You know what else I'd like? A Kitchen Aid mixer. Apparently it's 1950 and no one will buy me one until I'm married. Fine, when I get a job next year and start making real money, I'm going to buy myself one with my first pay check and I'm going to bake lots of goodies and I'm not going to share.

I'm so mature, aren't I?

It doesn't have to be pink, it just has to be mine...not that I have the space for it or anything.

So yea, that's my Christmas list. I also need new running shoes, but I'm going to have to suck it up and buy those myself. I'm also still in my pajamas and need to be at work in 20 minutes. Good thing my office is downstairs.

Tell Me: What's on your Holiday Wish List? Do you celebrate Christmas? Does anybody actually celebrate Kwanzaa? I'm starting to think it's a made up Holiday. I've never met anyone who knows anything about Kwanzaa...do you?

It's Friday y'all!
What are your plans for the weekend?

I'm going to write papers until my eyes fall out.

And then I'll be done with my last class of graduate school!

Have a fantastic weekend!

2012 Race Plans

2011-12-07T15:53:00.001-05:00

With 2012 quickly approaching, it seems that race plans for the next several months to year have already been finalized by many people in the blogging/running community.

Today is December 7. I'm not planning my next race until February 25. That is 79 days away. I'm very excited about this.

I'm raced out. I hate the fact that I raced this year because I had to. Of the 9 races I ran to gain guaranteed entry into the New York City Marathon, there were only 2 that I actually wanted to run...and then 4 other races that I actually wanted to run making a grand total of 13 (and one that was cancelled) races this year which doesn't seem like that many until you factor in the fact that between October 1 and December 2 I ran 3 half-marathons, 1 full marathon, a 5k and a 15k.

Yea. I don't want to do that again.

My goal for 2012 is to slow down. I want to race because I want to race...not because I have to. I want to wake up excited on Race Day, not tired and dreading having to get out of bed because I just did this last week. I'm not trying to get guaranteed entry into the 2013 NYC Marathon, so I'm all set with having to pay to run circles in Central Park for awhile.

So what's on my Race Calendar for 2012? First up:

The Cowtown Half-Marathon - I'll be making my way back to DFW to run in my first Texas race! I've roped (or should I say lasso'd) my 17-year-old sister to run the 5k with me the day before as part of the Cowtown Challenge! I'm a sucker for race bling and if you run any 2 events during race weekend, you get a pretty sweet medal and getting my little sister to run in her first race with me will be that much more awesome. Added bonus, The Cowtown falls perfectly in line with my training for my spring marathon (see below.)

Next up is the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Run in DC of course! For those of you who are somewhat new to this blog, you can read about how I didn't run the Cherry Blossom last year here. My fabulous DC friends and I have registered for the lottery as a group so here's to crossing my fingers I get in!

It wouldn't be spring without my annual trip to Boston for the Boston Marathon festivities, complete with a 5k PR and Course PR that I'll be aiming to crush this year with the help of my favorite LL Bean chaperone. I'm trying to convince a certain Pilot to take the trip to Boston with me this year for a weekend full of blogging, running, cowbell waving girls all descending on a city to cheer on one of the greatest marathons in the world.

In case you haven't noticed, I'm a big fan of international travel. Having spent my entire summer traveling through Europe and South Asia, I think it's only appropriate that I go international for my third marathon. Enter Spain. After being rejected from the London Marathon lottery (how rude!), I started looking into other international spring marathons and Ally (aka Mrs. Hugh Jackman) and I, tempted by the race discount given to us by Rock 'n' Roll at the Marine Marathon expo, caved and are now planning my 2nd trip to Spain. It'll be my first Rock 'n' Roll race so I'm pretty excited!

And of course, the whole reason why I ran so many races this year was for the New York City Marathon which I'll be running on November 4. I'd like to run a mid-summer half to keep me in shape between training cycles and I'll probably run an early fall half as part of training for NYC but outside of that, that's it - my 2012 race schedule.

My 2012 Running/Racing Goals are to stay injury free, strength and cross train at least twice a week, run a sub-4 marathon and a sub 1:50 half-marathon. I was great about listening to my body this year but next year, I'd like to be better. I'd also like to run a training cycle without black toenails...I think switching out of my Nikes may help with that...I'm also signed up for a triathlon that I deferred from last year. We'll see how that goes though since the idea of riding a bike anywhere on the island of Manhattan terrifies me.

So that's what I've got planned! What about you? Are you making it a goal to race next year? Whether it's your first 5k or your 11th marathon, let me know what and where you'll be racing!

November Recap

2011-12-06T10:17:00.001-05:00

So we're 6 days into November and still no recap. Sorry.

I've been avoiding it. November was pretty much the most unproductive month I've had since starting my 25 Before 25 list because well, I was really busy. Let's break the month down week by week shall we?

Week 1: Recovering from Marine Corps Marathon, racing my way through my 3rd 5k.
Week 2: Spontaneous anniversary trip to Maine with The Pilot!

LL Bean is now our favorite store. Ever.

Week 3: Racing my way to a shiny new Half Marathon PR in Philly.

Week 4: Kicking off the Holiday season at home for Thanksgiving.

I had fun this month, that's for sure, I just wasn't all that productive in crossing things off my list. You know what I was productive about though? Reading everything there is to know about the African continent, writing papers about sex trafficking and all things grad school. I always make sarcastic comments about how uplifting my graduate program is but truth be told, I love learning about all of this stuff. I feed off it. You can ask my poor boyfriend how many times we've been out to dinner and I start going off about human rights violations in Sudan and the fact that World Cup soccer brings along with it a huge increase in the sex trade (which is the current topic of the paper I'm writing). I love this stuff. I love sitting down with these issues and striving to find a way to bring about change. I could not have chosen a better topic for my Master's.

And to think, I started college as a THEATER major.

This month, I submitted my thesis proposal. I won't have my Master's by 25, but I'll have it 3 months after I turn 25. I'll take it. I think I'm going to extend my deadline the way health insurance companies extend your health care.

I will have ~~health insurance until~~ completed my list by the end of my 25th year.

With 3 months to go, there are a few reasons for the extension of my list, namely that grad school takes up an obscene amount of my life and that being gone all summer kept me from doing things like horseback riding, ballpark visiting and movie watching. I'm ok with it though.

But you know what I did do this month? I:

Read the Book of John, the Acts of the Apostles and the Book of Romans. In 25 days time, I'll have read through the entire Bible in one year and crossed another thing off my list.
Submitted my thesis proposal and am well on track to getting my Master's.
Made another recipe out of one of my cookbooks...only 10 more to go!

You know what else I did? I had fun. I saw some balloons inflated for the Thanksgiving Day Parade...

...and I saw the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree get lit up...kind of.

Before

After

Because you know what? What's the point of life if you can't have fun? This month, I'm going to finish my last semester of coursework for graduate school. I'm going to read a lot of books in my pajamas. I'm going to watch a lot of movies in my pajamas. I'm going to try to enjoy the Holidays for once. I'm going to scrapbook till my eyes fall out. I'm going to bake a lot. I'm going to run when I feel like it. I'm not going to race. And I'm going to welcome in 2012 with open arms.

How did your November shape up?

Love/Don't Love

2011-12-05T09:02:00.001-05:00

1. I love Washington, DC. Although this was a short trip, I got to spend it a lot of time with my friends who are my favorite people in the world. This trip had a lot of hiccups. The two reasons I was in DC ended up being disastrous but time with good friends, old and new made everything that much better. Love.
2. My least favorite class ends Wednesday. I still have one more week to go for my other 2 classes but I'm slowly (and I do mean slowly), but surely getting there. Love.

There's light at the end of the tunnel!

3. This weekend, I totally surprised myself. I tend to have a pretty bad temper and a really short fuse and the fact that I never once blew up, flipped out or cursed up a storm over the events that unfolded at Saturday's Hot Chocolate 15k just show that *sigh* I'm growing up. Love.
4. My apartment is a horrific mess. I never let it get this bad. But being away for Thanksgiving and then leaving again 3 days later for DC has left me with a mess that I honestly don't have time to clean. Don't Love.

via

5. My international travel prospects for 2012 are starting to look pretty fantastic. Love.
6. My race prospects for 2012 are also starting to look pretty fantastic. Love.
7. Pan Am is back and was so good last night! Unfortunately it won't be on again until January. Love/Don't Love.
8. I really want to clean my room, post pictures of my apartment on the blog and put up my Christmas decorations but I don't see that happening anytime soon...or at least not until next week. Don't Love.

Well, I'm off to push through the rest of my work.

I need my running mantras to apply to school work here!

What have you got planned for the week?

Hot Chocolate 15k Race Recap

2011-12-04T14:02:00.001-05:00

There are three words that I can use to accurately describe this race: clusterf*ck, sh*t show and disaster.

The Hot Chocolate 15k, organized by Ram Racing, should be used from here on after as a model for race organizers everywhere on how not to organize a race.

There were a lot of things that went wrong with this race that were completely out of the hands of the race organizers, but the way they handled every aspect of it was completely unacceptable.

If you'd like, you can visit the Facebook page here to view the 600+ comments that people have made in response to the race. Or you can grab a cup of hot chocolate that you didn't have to suffer for and continue to read my recap.

Before I go into detail, there are a few things I'd like to point out:

It's sad that Ghiradelli put their name on such a disaster of an event and I really hope they pull their sponsorship from future Ram Racing events.
While everyone in Social Media is demanding a refund, I can't say that I need one. Despite all of the hiccups, they delivered on producing a timed race and providing unlimited amounts of fondue and hot chocolate afterwards (which were, in fact delicious).
The few volunteers they had were awesome. I can't even imagine what it must have been like to volunteer at a nightmare like that but they were great.

Now, let's go back to 3 or so months ago when I decided to sign up for this race and @HotChocolate15k was incessantly tweeting me, Christine and Emily about registering. Never one after we registered, did we ever hear from them again including when I tweeted questions such as: Is the race Metro accessible?

When the race was advertised, it was advertised as a" downtown course in The Nation's Capitol." There was no course map but that led me to believe (stupidly) that the course would involve some kind of 9.3 mile through the monuments, Mall, etc. After and only after the course had reached its capacity of 20,000 runners did the Course Map get posted as being in National Harbor...aka in Maryland (I think), not in DC and not Metro accessible. I won't bore you with details of the 500 emails I've gotten over the course of the last month requiring us to register for transportation options and information about parking, shuttles, etc but let's just say they were excessive.

I had planned to stay in a hotel with Emily the night before and Andrea offered to come pick us up. The race had an 8am start time and we agreed on 6:30 as a pick up time to give us 45 minutes to drive the 4.9 miles to the race site. After all, we wanted to give ourselves plenty of time.

4.9 miles, 13 minutes according to Google Maps

Within 5 minutes of getting in the car, we got slammed into gridlock traffic that was not moving. Apparently, there was an accident which, according to Facebook and Twitter, was false. As the minutes rolled by and we looked around us, we realized that the entire traffic jam was runners with very worried looks on their faces and none of us knew what was happening. So, we turned to Social Media.

Well, considering we still had 2 miles to go and weren't moving, that didn't help. Then they posted this:

Right. We finally got off the bridge around 9:15 or so and had no idea if the race had started, what was happening, anything. It took us forever to find the parking garage because there were no signs, no volunteers, no anyone. People were walking in all sorts of directions asking everyone what was happening and no one had any update. We finally found a sign that said 'Starting Line Path This Way.' The path was about as wide as 3 people and tons of us were making our way up hill up this narrow, gravel path toward the start. Then, we got to an intersection where a race volunteer was trying to direct the flow of pedestrian traffic through the flow of 5k runners who were already running their race. Yea, we had to go through the 5k to get to the start...which would have happened regardless of whether there was a traffic delay or not since the 5k was scheduled to start 30 minutes before the 15k.

The traffic jam vvia

After making our way the mile up hill to the start, I left Andrea and her friend Kelly to go find my corral since I was seeded into Corral B. I saw the signs for the A and C corrals but there was no B. Then I realized that everyone in the C corral wasn't seeded so I just jumped in. Everyone was standing around waiting for the race to start. There were no announcements, music, nothing and then all of a sudden, people just started running. No gun, no announcement, nothing. They just let 20,000 runners stream through the starting line all at once. So much for corrals. I literally walked the first 3/4 of the race because it was so jam packed there was no way to get around. We made a small out and back and then we merged onto a highway. With live traffic. Yup. The first 4 miles of this race were on a three lane highway with one lane open to traffic. Runners were dodging cars, cones strewn across the road, oh and each other. It was so unbelievable tight, you couldn't move. I actually saw someone get hit by a car. They were fine but it was really scary to see. The high way was 2 miles out and 2 miles back and it was like that the entire time. I started to feel nauseous from breathing in the exhaust fumes and my knee was starting to hurt from running on concrete. I decided...I'm supposed to start training for a marathon in 4 weeks, I'm not doing this, it's not worth it. So I started looking around for someone to stop so I could say, I can't run this race anymore. I didn't see a volunteer on the course until Mile 7.

When we finally got off the highway, we made our way up hill to the first water stop which had something I've never seen in a race: self serve aid stations! That's right. They had about 3 volunteers and people were literally grabbing water gallons and drinking right out of them because the cups were still stacked in plastic bags. I skipped that one. At this point, I had been running for close to 5 miles and awake for 4 with nothing in my stomach but a granola bar, I was starving. I could have really used some Gatorade but I wasn't about to fight my way through the mob of people trying to pour their own water. For about a mile, the course opened up as we made our way down a long, winding hill before it crowded up again through a narrow path around the National Harbor...not through it, around it. Mile 7 brought another hill that brought us onto a dirt, sandy, gravel path which was kind of difficult to run on and then onto another dirt, sandy, gravel path that was about 6 feet across and opened onto about a 4 1/2 foot drop onto the water. Runners were shoving their way through one another and on more than one occasion, someone teetered dangerously close to that drop. When I finally made my way up the last hill to the Finish Line, I barely crossed the Finish Line because traffic from those who had already finished was so backed up because they were handing out water approximately 3 feet from the Finish Line. From there, we had to walk about a half mile up hill to the Finishers' Festival.

See that narrow sandy beach? That's where we were running.

I do have to say, the Finishers' Festival was fantastic. They definitely delivered more than enough chocolate fondue with dippings and hot chocolate, a great DJ with fun music and an overall nice ending to a pretty terrible race.

I finished in 1:26:17. I feel pretty 'meh' about my finish time. I couldn't have gone faster if I tried because of the congestion and the fact that I was starving through most of the race didn't really help. The course was actually short. My Garmin read 9.09 miles and I knew something was off when the Finish Lines for both the 5 and 15k were the same but the signs for Mile 3 and Mile 9 were in the same spot. It's a shame that the race was so terrible. No, Ram Racing couldn't control that there was an accident, however I'm grateful that they held up the race. What I do have a problem with is that from what I read on Facebook, the organizers never let the people who were already at the race know what was going on so they stood outside, lined up for over 2 hours waiting for an update. A lot of people just left. Social media is a gift and a tool, making an announcement on Facebook and Twitter would have been helpful. Instead of simply delaying the race, they should have postponed it to a certain start time and made that information clear so that people waiting around could have gone somewhere warm to wait and people stuck in traffic could have made it.

These are things they could have controlled. They also could have controlled mapping out a safe course and limiting the amount of participants. This course probably couldn't have handled more than 3,000 without staggered start times never mind 10,000 starting all at the same time.

Someone posted this on Facebook and it was too good not to share.

A lot of people are demanding refunds. I'm not. They delivered, badly, but they delivered. They provided a race, gave everyone the opportunity to run that race despite the set back and didn't skimp on the endless amounts of chocolate that were promised.

Yesterday they announced that an official statement would be coming soon from the race organizers but that hasn't yet happened. I had heard terrible things about the Hot Chocolate Chicago race so this frequent occurrence is a warning for me to stay away from future Ram Racing events. I love the idea of a will-run-for-chocolate type event but this was just poorly organized on all levels from the time I registered through the time I crossed the Finish Line. I'm disappointed but hey, what can you do. It was my first 15k and I learned that I like that distance, I'll definitely tackle it again. I'd probably PR by something like 10 minutes because I'd actually be able to run the race.

Somehow, I stayed surprisingly calm throughout the traffic incident and didn't let the race frustrate me. I think it was because I just didn't really care. I've said it before but I'm so burned out from racing this year that I just didn't let it bother me too much. 13 races is a lot to do in one year and my next race isn't for 3 months which I'm thrilled about. I love racing but I don't want to race nearly this much next year. One thing I do know is that I had a fantastic time with Andrea, Kelly and Emily and a great trip to DC. There were some hiccups involving the race and the reason I was in DC in the first place but you all know how much I love DC and that I look for any and every excuse to get down there and this trip provided me with awesome friends, new and old, an adventurous run and a 2 day trip away from working on my final papers which I need to get back to.

So tell me: Have you ever run a race this terrible? Do you think Ram Racing could redeem itself from something this disorganized? I'd love to hear from you.

Another Oops and a Blog Swap Reveal

2011-11-28T21:36:00.001-05:00

I was supposed to come back to New York last night.

Instead, I opted to drink hot chocolate (nutella, of course)with The Pilot and watch “Love Actually.”

Oops.

This weekend was just too good to want to leave and since I didn’t haveanywhere to be until 3:30 today, I decided to stay home an extra night and makemy way back to the city today.

Fantastic idea.

I don’t have a tremendous amount to report on my end otherthan the fact that this week is going to be a lot busier than I’d like it tobe.

Aside from work and class, I have 2 papers to write, anabsurd amount of reading (for school), laundry to do, a resume to update and anapplication to fill out for a really exciting program that I’m not sayinganything about.

At least not now.

Oh and I have a race this weekend.

Thursday night, I’m heading to my favorite place (DC ofcourse) on some official business and to run the Hot Chocolate 15k with these amazing blogger ladies.

I’m coming back Saturday to write another paper, prepare apresentation and get ready to revel in being almost completely finished with my final semester of graduatecourse work.

Not quite there but so, so close! via

Let’s hope I make it through this semester without ending upin the hospital again.

Just kidding.

Kind of. I’ll be fine. I have a pretty good handle onthings. Once I’m through this week, I’ll be in great shape. And for some oddreason, I tend to be really productive in airports and on planes, so I shouldhave a pretty easy time getting stuff done while I’m traveling.

via

Now, in more exciting news, today is November 28 which meansit’s time for the Blog Swap Reveal! A few weeks ago, I signed up for a blogswap with some awesome ladies (link below). I was paired with Erin who sent me a fantasticpackage of things she’s thankful for…which, I am too. Check it out!

My package came with:

Women's Health magazine
Dunkin' Donuts Pumpkin Spice coffee (yum!)
E.L.F. Eyeshadow and Nail Polish
Burt's Bees Acai Lip Balm (amazing!)
Orbit Wildberry Gym (sooo tasty!)

I love all of it and can’t wait to paint my nails for theholidays! Thanks Erin!

Well, that’s that. I hope everyone had an easy timetransitioning back from the holiday weekend!

PS: I scored some awesome Black Friday deals without havingto wait in any crazy lines because guess what…Black Friday deals last allweekend!

I’ll be sharing what I got later this week!

So tell me: What was your favorite partof the weekend? Did you go Black Friday shopping? Have you ever participated ina blog swap?

Happy Monday y’all!

Thanksgiving Weekend

2011-11-27T16:56:00.001-05:00

God has given me so many wonderful things to be thankful for and this weekend brought all of that together.

I'm so blessed.

via

I spent Thanksgiving morning eating cinnamon rolls and drinking mimosas with my mom and The Pilot.

I spent Thanksgiving dinner with The Pilot at his grandparents' house. We ate appetizers in their sun room with the most beautiful view of the sun setting on the bay.

We went to Target at midnight with my sister and brother-in-law because well, why not?

Friday, I studied and The Pilot and I went to the movies, went for a run, studied some more, watched movies with my mom and then went out for late drinks with The Pilot and one of our friends from high school.

I spent Saturday working on a paper. I went for a run and then went to my aunt's house with The Pilot. We went to Mass together at my old elementary school and then went shopping.

Today, I studied some more and went shopping with my mom. I worked on a paper and caught up on some blogs.

This weekend was perfect.

I did everything I love with everyone I love.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Recipe: Quick Minestrone Soup

2011-11-21T18:37:00.001-05:00

It's getting to be that time of year where the only thing that warms you up from being outside is a nice, big cup of hearty soup.

It's been awhile since I've delved into one of the recipes from my cookbook challenge, so last night, I decided to make a bowl of the Quick Minestrone.

I amended the quantities of the ingredients a bit, so here goes:

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup white onion, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp each minced fresh thyme and oregano
1 tsp minced fresh parsley
1/4 tsp chili flakes
1 red and 1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 small eggplant, diced
1 carrot, peeled and diced
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 medium zucchini, diced
32 oz. V8 Vegetable Juice
1 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup cooked pasta shells
Salt and pepper to taste

Make sure you dice the vegetables into bite size pieces. I chopped mine a little too big so it was kind of awkward eating these big clumps of vegetables in my soup.

Sauteing veggies!

Directions

Put the olive oil, onion, garlic, herbs and spices in a saucepan and sautee until sizzling.
Add the vegetables and stir until they soften...about 15 minutes.
Pour in the V8 juice. *Use left over for nutrient rich, delicious Bloody Marys*
Add the beans, then the cooked pasta. *Note, I cooked the pasta al dente as it continues to cook in the soup)
Taste, add salt and pepper if needed. If the liquid is low, add some warm water.
Serve with some crackers or bread and enjoy!

Only 10 more recipes to go!

Love/Don't Love

2011-11-21T11:34:00.001-05:00

1. I slept for 13 hours last night. It was glorious. Love.
2. Yesterday, I owned my race. My new running mantra (which I developed somewhere around Mile 9) became "Own your race." I didn't put everything out there but I still finished strong and fast. Now, I have my sights set on a winter Half-Marathon that I can truly own and test my limits and see just how fast these little legs can carry me. Love.

Woo! Look at me! I PRd!

3. I came home last night to find the picture frames I hung on my wall last week on the floor, shattered to a million pieces. So much for posting photos of my apartment this week. Don't Love.

4. I'm starting to get a tiny bit excited for the Holidays...you know, now that they actually start this week and it's appropriate to do so. Love.
5. The Pilot and I have plans to go see Macy's inflate all of the balloons for the Thanksgiving Day Parade but now it's supposed to rain. I swear I feel like it rains at least twice a week in New York. Don't Love.
6. 3 more weeks! 3 more weeks! 3 more weeks! Love.
7. Those 3 weeks involve a lot of paper writing...which is what I will be doing on Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday and through the weekend. Goal = write 2 of 3 final papers this weekend. Don't Love.
8. I just found out I don't have to work on Wednesday which means as of 6pm tomorrow I'm free! Love...To go write papers. Don't Love.

It's the start of a short week for everyone!
What are you loving and not loving this week?

Who's doing something exciting for Thanksgiving?

Philadelphia Half-Marathon Race Recap

2011-11-20T20:19:00.001-05:00

Dear Philly,

I don't like your sports teams but I love running in your city.

Love, Christy

Hi.

Remember when I was all..."I have no idea what to expect and I'm terrified about racing this weekend?"

Well, those feelings brought back to me all of the nervous excitement that I had been missing out on from running so many times this year.

Since Marine Corps, I had run a total of 24 miles before today...2 of those runs, I dropped out of less than half way through my planned run because of knee pain and none of those runs were longer than 5 miles.

My goals for Philly were to:

Have fun reliving the nostalgia of running on the same course of my first marathon. Check!
Run smart and listen to my body. Check!
PR if at all possible. CHECK!

I had a blast at this race.The weather was perfect, I hit all my goals and for the first seven miles, I couldn't wipe the smile off of my face.

I heard that Garmins tend to get a little wonky in Philly so I turned off Auto Lap and then accidentally only lapped my first mile so unfortunately, I don't have splits for this race. Unless you count this as a split:

How's that for positive splitting?

I loved running the course and having, "Hey! I remember this" moments. It was so much fun! Philly was the first course I've ever run twice and I loved knowing what was coming.

Sunrise at the starting line

I was maintaining a pretty consistent pace of between 8:43 and 8:47 all the way through the 10k and then I just started feeling good so I picked up the pace a bit and was 8:37. Around Mile 7, I started fading a little bit. I was keeping my pace but my legs were starting to get tired so I decided to take a Gu at Mile 7.5.

After the stomach issues I had at Marine Corps which I realized had nothing to do with my dairy intake, I was nervous to take a Gu because Gu is the only thing consistent with my stomach issues and running. I decided to space it out and took it over the course of the next mile. At this point, we started hitting some rolling hills. Nothing serious at all but I didn't remember them from last year and had really only remembered the hill around Mile 9. I kept my pace consistent through them and was really happy.

My plan was to speed it up for the last 10k if I was on target for hitting a PR but that wasn't happening. I was feeling great but I just didn't have it in me to pick up the pace anymore, so I kept my pace steady and made my way to the Finish Line which I crossed in 1:54:14...a 1 1/2 minute PR.

I ~~was~~ am elated. The hazelnut truffle in my mouth may have something to do with that. Or maybe it was meeting Katie's awesome first-time marathoning husband Thom out on the course at Mile 3. Or maybe it was the fact that I had a 91 second PR in my last big race of the season.

D. All of the Above.

Only the Hot Chocolate 15k, some final papers and 3 more weeks of school stand between me and a month off from training. I can't wait.

Thanks for all of your support this weekend! I had an awesome time!

Friday Rambles

2011-11-18T16:19:00.001-05:00

This weekend is the Philadelphia Half-Marathon.

I'm terrified. Part of me wishes I would drop out. The other part of me is really excited.

Since the Marine Corps Marathon, I've run a total of 19 miles. I'm hoping to turn that into 23-24 tonight. I had planned to take at least 4 days off after the marathon and when I tried to go for that first run, my body was screaming at me not to.

Then, I ran the Dash to the Finish Line 5k and had a great race and started having wild fantasies of running the full marathon in Philly and seeking sub-4 redemption. 2 days later, I went for a run and started having major knee pain which has shortened 2 of my remaining 4 runs this month.

I really want to run Philly, have fun and PR (break 1:55:45) but I know I have to run the race smart. My plan? Start off slow for the first three miles then clock into my goal pace (8:46) by Mile 5, hold that steady through Mile 10 and then race the last 5k.

This all of course depends on how my knee wants to cooperate.

In other news, The Pilot and I went to see tonight's taping of The Late Show with David Letterman.

I scored free tickets through my job so we made our way over to the Ed Sullivan theater where Regis Philbin was outside attempting to learn how to ride a scooter. Regis is really tiny in person.

via

It's ok Reeg, I feel ya. The Pilot has a scooter and I almost crashed it into a dumpster when he tried to teach me how to ride it.

Letterman's guest was Herman Cain. He's umm interesting. The CBS orchestra is absolutely fantastic though and we had a lot of fun.

After the taping, we had dinner in Times Square and then made our way home for Thursday night TV. Today, I worked and now I'm sitting in a make-up class talking about Occupy Wall Street for the umpteenth time...clearly I'm very interested and paying loads of attention.

That's what's going on this Friday! Tell me: Have you ever been to a live taping of a TV show? What are your plans for the weekend? Anyone racing? Anyone resting?

Have a great weekend!

If you watch the Letterman show tonight, look for me in the audience!

Three Things Thursday

2011-11-17T11:29:00.001-05:00

1. Grad School - One of the things on my 25 Before 25 list is to get my Master's. Last night, I turned in my thesis proposal which is the last step in the grad school process. I'm really excited about my topic (which I'll post more about later in the writing process) and the possibility of going back to Africa to do my field research. I turned in my preliminary proposal last night and I'll turn in an extended proposal in January and start writing. I'm hoping to travel around February-March and write my first draft around the middle of March and finish it up by then. I have to be really strict with setting deadlines for myself and following them which isn't going to be easy but I'm determined to make the process fun!

2. Philly - This Sunday is the Philadelphia Marathon and Half Marathon. Last Monday I had wild fantasies of running the marathon, going sub-4 and writing an "Oops I Ran a Marathon" post. Then my knee fell apart on Tuesday and I realized that wasn't going to happen. My knee has basically been bothering me every other run but if I keep a knee brace on it, it doesn't hurt so I'm hoping for a good race in Philly. Philly was my first full so I really wanted to take part in the race again. But it might be a little too soon after Marine Corps. Hal Higdon says you need one day of rest for every mile you ran in the marathon and I think I'm starting to believe that. I think after my next training cycle, I'm going to have to give myself ample time to rest...especially since 2012 is going to be my first multiple marathon year! No matter what happens in Philly, I'm heading down with Celia and Katie will be there too, so it's bound to be a fun weekend.

3. The Holiday 'Spirit' - When The Pilot and I went to Texas in September for my friend's wedding, you would have thought it was December 21. There was Christmas stuff every where. Call me a Grinch all you want, but I hate that Christmas starts earlier and earlier every year. I think it makes people so sick of Christmas by the time the holiday actually gets here, that no one wants a part of it...myself included. I would be so much happier if we just went back to the 12 days of Christmas rather than the 90 days of Christmas. The more I see Christmas stuff weeks upon weeks in advance, the more I get annoyed about it. I refuse to shop in a store that's decked out for the holidays before Black Friday. I don't understand the point...no one actually buys Christmas-themed items as gifts anyway and no one starts decorating until after Thanksgiving. I read a consumer report that 89% of consumers are dissatisfied with how early Christmas begins...so why does it continue to start earlier and earlier every year? Oh and ABC Family's Countdown to the Countdown of the 25 days of Christmas? Not cool. Not cool at all.

So tell me: Have you written a graduate thesis? Did you have fun with it or am I setting myself up for major disappointment? How long do you usually rest after racing? What are your thoughts on Christmas starting earlier and earlier each year? Do you get excited about it? Or do you think it's too much?

Love/Don't Love

2011-11-14T20:51:00.001-05:00

1. I'm still on a high from my amazing weekend getaway to Maine. Love.

2. Me and this whole Daylight Saving thing aren't getting along at all. Despite getting more than enough sleep every night, I'm finding myself absolutely exhausted by 6pm every night. Usually it only takes me a day or 2 to switch to the time change around but this time, my body just does not want to respond. Don't Love.
3. I had a really great meeting with my thesis adviser today and I'm submitting my proposal on Friday. I can't wait to be done with classes and spend the next four months writing my thesis. Love.

Ask me how excited I am in March...

4. I had to cut my planned 12 mile run short today because of horrible knee pain. This has been going on since Marine Corps and I'm finally sucking it up and going to see someone about it. I just hope I can still run Philly this weekend and Hot Chocolate in a few weeks. Don't Love.
5. I'm finally, for the first time, starting to feel good about this semester. I have 3 weeks left and a manageable amount of work to do. I'm starting to catch up on my work and get my final assignments done and then it will all be over. Love.

That's it for today!

I'm exhausted!

Hope you're all having a great start to the week!

Oops...I went to Maine!

2011-11-13T13:22:00.001-05:00

If you're wondering where I've been for the last few days, I was in Maine. Oops. The Pilot and I had been toying around with the idea of going somewhere for our anniversary but couldn't really decide on anything. On Wednesday afternoon, he sent me a text that said "Ok, we're all set for tomorrow." "Where are we going," I asked. "Portland, Maine."

So I set packed a bag and set my alarm for bright and early the next morning and met The Pilot at Newark airport where we boarded a flight to Portland.

As soon as we landed and checked into our hotel, we made our way downtown to start exploring. Neither of us had ever been to Portland and it was my first time in Maine at all. Unfortunately, the weather was pretty crappy, but we still had fun! As soon as he told me we were going to Maine, I typed in "Portland" into my Google reader and came across a ton of posts that some of the bloggers I follow have written about Portland so I had a small list of places I wanted to check out!

First up, the Coastal Maine Popcorn Company.

Lots and LOTS of popcorn!

This place was fantastic! We sampled so many different amazing popcorns like Buffalo Wing, Apple Pie a la Mode, Maine Maple and Oatmeal Raisin. I came home with some Toffee for myself, Maine maple for my Mom and The Pilot brought home some French Toast (Maine Maple & Cinnamon Toast mixed). I love supporting local businesses and we loved chatting it up with the store owner and learning all about how their popcorn is made and how they're expanding their business! If you're looking for stocking stuffers this season, I highly recommend some Maine popcorn!

After exploring a bit more and dipping in and out of the shops, we went for lunch and beer at a local brewpub called Gritty McDuff's which was pretty good. We were planning to get some ice cream for dessert but it was so cold, we decided to duck into a quaint little coffee shop called Mornings in Paris for some hot chocolate! I couldn't not help myself to ~~a few~~ several nutella macaroons that were absolute heaven!

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After our hot chocolate and macaroons, we headed over to the Shipyard Brewing Company for a tasting.

The Brewery!

We sampled a few (tasty!) beers, learned about the history of the company and got to visit the bottling line. After our beer tasting, we headed back to our hotel to freshen up before going to dinner at Local 188, a really fun restaurant that had both romantic tables for two and comfy couches for drinking with friends. The beer menu was extensive and so was the wine list. Dinner was delicious followed by a fantastic apple crisp. After Dinner, we met up with Danielle for drinks at the rooftop bar, East End Lounge. I had told Danielle we were coming to town the night before and didn't think The Pilot would mind having her crash our anniversary night for a bit. We had espresso martinis and then headed to a church-turned-bar/restaurant called Grace for some more drinks.

How awesome is this place?

Well after one drink too many, we decided that a midnight trip to LL Bean was in order. Yes, LL Bean is open 24 hours. Supposedly, the only times they've ever closed are when John F. Kennedy and LL Bean died. They don't even have locks on the door! According to Danielle, the only things to do after hours in Maine are to go to LL Bean or Denny's. Clearly, we chose LL Bean. Holy goodness, drunk shopping at LL Bean is something that needs to happen in my life more often. Especially with Danielle.

Surprisingly, I didn't mind this place all decked out for the holidays.

Ahh! A moose!

After spending ~~far too much~~ not nearly enough time at all (!) at LL Bean, we headed back to our hotel to call it a night. The next morning, we had a flight to catch...except we didn't get on it because, as you all know, The Pilot and I fly stand by. Since we couldn't get on our flight and the next one wasn't until 7, we decided to rent a car and go where else? To LL Bean. Well, kind of. We headed to Freeport, ME to explore the outlet shops (and of course go back to LL Bean) for a few hours before heading back to the airport and flying home where we showed up and surprised the heck out of my mom at her birthday party. (Yup, my mom's birthday was on 11/11/11...because she's even more awesome than a date with all 1's)

And if all that wasn't enough for you, The Pilot and I spent our Saturday on a morning run around town and then we took my mom and his parents bowling and to the ice cream shop to wrap up a perfect weekend.

I loved Maine and I'll absolutely go back...but maybe not until the summer when it gets a bit warmer! Have you ever taken a spontaneous vacation?

I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend!

The Story of Us

2011-11-09T23:27:00.001-05:00

This morning, The Pilot and I were featured on one of my favorite blogs: Long Distance Loving. Every Wednesday, {AV} features a couple that is in a long distance relationship. The stories that she has featured have been great and I've enjoyed reading every one of them and it was so fun to be featured ourselves!

{AV} referred to us "a jetsetting pair" and that's definitely true. From our first date on a plane ride over Daytona Beach to multiple trips jetting back and forth from New York to Florida, New Jersey to Boston, New Jersey to Florida and now, New Jersey to New York, we've definitely racked up the mileage on planes, trains and automobiles just trying to see each other.

With our anniversary coming up this weekend, I thought it might be fun to tell you some things about us.

We met in high school. We worked in the main office together during our free period of our senior year. The secretaries who worked there always used to tell us that we were going to end up together. We both thought that was really awkward.
We actually went to prom together...not as dates but with the same group of friends. I went with one of his good friends.
He was the captain of the football team. I was the furthest thing from a cheerleader you could have found at our high school.
It was during our senior year of college that we bumped into each other again and sparks started flying right away.
One of our first dates was to Disney World. On one of our second, he took me flying over Daytona Beach in a tiny little Cessna 152 plane.

Our birthdays are 1 week apart.
It took us a year of dating before we went ahead and made it "Facebook official."
We're both huge Mets and Jets fans. The only sport we disagree on is hockey. (Devils suck, just kidding babe...not really)

Sometimes it's scary how much we can read each other's minds.
Every year for New Year's, we go somewhere and buy a bottle of wine to drink the following year on New Year's. This year, our bottle of wine broke so we're hunting for a new bottle to replace last year's...I think this year we should buy 2...just to be safe.
We get a long with each other's families really well. In my case, I think my dad likes him more than he likes me.
I love that he flies planes. I think his job is the most interesting thing in the world and I love that he has different stories to tell from work every day.

So that's that. It's been 2 years since that fateful day when we made our lives public to the world of Facebook and became "official" and almost 3 years since we bumped into each other that night before Thanksgiving. Since then, it's been a blast and I wouldn't change it for anything.

Happy Anniversary babe, I love you.

New York City Marathon: 9+1 Guaranteed Entry Option

2011-11-08T22:45:00.001-05:00

This past Saturday, I ran my 9th and final qualifying race to secure guaranteed entry into the 2012 New York City Marathon.

The NYC Marathon is known for being notoriously difficult for getting into. With a lottery that puts approximately 1 in 3 applicants through and qualifying times that are steeper than Boston's, the only other options to run NYC are through a charity or through the 9+1 guaranteed entry option. (There used to be a few other ways but New York Road Runners has done away with them as of a few weeks ago).

Because of the difficulty of getting into the New York City Marathon, NYRR has coined the phrase "I'm in" to celebrate those who are "in" for the next race.

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The 9+1 guaranteed entry option is the only surefire way for New Yorkers to secure entry into their marathon if they don't want to run for charity and they can't run a 3:00 marathon or a 1:27 Half. (I kid you not, 3:00 is the qualifying time for women ages 18-39. It used to be 3:23)

When I was in Boston for the Boston Marathon this past year, I remember talking to Lizzie, Lauren, Becky and some other bloggers who said that they wished Boston had a similar program for guaranteed entry into the Boston Marathon. At the time, I completely agreed with them and praised up and down how fantastic I think the 9+1 Guaranteed Entry option is.

But after finally completing my 9+1, I feel a little bit differently about it.

NYC Half 2011

The official rules can be read here but basically you have to be a member of NYRR, complete 9 qualifying NYRR races and volunteer for 1 in the year before the year you want to run the marathon. You must also be a member of NYRR at the time of application to the marathon that you plan to run.

The 9 races I ran were:

Al Gordon Classic (4m)
NYC Half-Marathon
NYRR 4-Mile
New York Mini 10k
Percy Sutton Harlem 5k (cancelled due to Hurricane Irene but I still got credit)
Women Mind Body & Spirit Games (4m)
Grete's Great Gallop (Half-Marathon)
Staten Island Half-Marathon
Dash to the Finish Line 5k

You can read the recaps for all of these races on my Race Recaps page here.

While the majority of the distances were shorter and I could have done almost all of my races as 4 or 5 mile races if I wanted, I didn't really have that option since I was gone for most of the summer and missed a lot of those races. Whether I had run my races through the summer or not though, 9 races is a lot and after feeling like I was racing every weekend, I really lost a lot of the excitement that makes racing appeal to me from having to do it so often.

Staten Island Half 2011

What bothers me the most about the 9+1 option is that I missed out on a lot of other really great races because I was running races that I really wasn't invested in just to get the credit for it. A 4 miler in February? In Brooklyn? No thanks. A 5k in Harlem? Definitely not. A Half-Marathon in Staten Island? No thank you. Of the 9 races I ran, the only one I would run again is the NYRR Mini 10k...and maybe the Dash to the Finish if it wasn't $50.

Speaking of money. Let's talk about how much all of this actually cost me. Membership itself is $40 which you have to pay twice (the year you run your 9 races + the year you run the marathon). Right there we're at $80. The 4 mile races, Grete's Gallop and the Mini 10k were $18 a piece. The NYC Half was $79 (plus a $5 processing fee). The Harlem 5k was $27 and the State Island Half was $25. Add all of that together plus the $156 (plus $11 processing fee) for the New York City Marathon and you're at just under $500.

Now, that's not a tremendous amount of money and some of the races, half-marathons in particular are a lot cheaper than what other organizations will charge for the same distance it definitely adds up and I probably won't spend much more than half of that on the races I have planned for 2012 but here I've gone and spent almost $500 just to be able to run the New York City Marathon.

If I had known it was going to add up to be that much, I would have opted to run the race for charity. Now most charities have a commitment of around $2500 but I could have put that $500 in myself and gotten the rest donated by friends, colleagues, professors, etc. That evens out to only 40 people donating $50 each or 80 at $25 each, as someone who has done a lot of fundraising, I know isn't difficult to do.

Team for Kids - one of the many charities that sponsor NYC Marathon runners

Don't get me wrong, I can't wait to toe the line on the Verrazano Bridge next year and whether I got in by 9+1 or some other option, it's definitely a race I want to do. I think that 9+1 is a great way for runners to keep their fitness all year long and have the chance to run a marathon that's so difficult to get into but I wish I would have known just how much this was going to cost me so that instead of giving $500 out of my pocket to New York Road Runners, I could have taken that money and given it to one of the amazing charities that sponsors runners for the marathon.

That's my 2 cents. I'd love it if you weighed in: Have you run the NYC Marathon? How did you get "In"? Do you think 9+1 is a good program? Have you run a race for charity? Would you have rather an option like 9+1 or would you do it again?

Love/Don't Love

2011-11-07T13:15:00.001-05:00

1. Since my last Love/Don't Love Post, I'm feeling a lot better about everything including school, work, etc. Love.
2. There are only 5 more weeks in the semester and I can totally handle it! There are only 2 papers, 1 presentation and a take-home final that stand between me and never having to set foot in a classroom ever again. Love.
3. Training for the Philadelphia Half-Marathon starts today! I started my morning with an awesome strength training session that included some leg, back and bicep work and then a 15 minute Get Focused ab routine with the Nike Training Club app. Love.

4. I've only used the NTC app a few times but I can't view My Progress or get my workouts to sync to the Nike website. Don't Love.
5. The New York City Marathon was yesterday and everyone ran a great race! I can't wait to toe the line on the Verrazano Bridge next year! Love.
6. I got my butt kicked this morning and am definitely going to feel it tomorrow. Don't Love.
7. Lately I've really been into the whole mustache trend. I have no idea why but I think this whole fascination with mustaches is absolutely fantastic. Love.

Maybe I should throw a mustache party to get it out of my system?

8. This weekend was absolutely fantastic. Friday night involved frozen yogurt with these awesome blogger ladies. Saturday involved a 5k race, watching college football, writing a paper and a fantastic 30th birthday surprise costume party for The Pilot's brother. The party was at this cosmic miniature golf place...it was awesome! Love.

The Pilot and I went as elves!

9. This weekend was Daylight Saving Time. I don't understand why they call it "Daylight Saving" because I'm pretty sure that day light ends at 4pm and that isn't cool at all. I miss summer nights when it's light out until 8pm. Daylight Saving Time, you suck and I Don't Love you.
10.. Last week went by super fast and I'm hoping this weekend does as well! I didn't go to school at all last week (oops) so it might be tough to get back into things but The Pilot and I are celebrating our anniversary and it's my mom's birthday so it's definitely going to be a good week! Love.

What did you do this weekend? Did you run the New York City Marathon? Is it on your bucket list? Any big plans for the week?

Happy Monday everyone!

Dash to the Finish Line 5k

2011-11-06T19:33:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, I went for my first run since the Marine Corps Marathon and ran the NYRR Dash to the Finish Line 5k.

I promise this recap won't be as long as my MCM recap.

This race was my 9th and final race to secure guaranteed entry into the 2012 New York City Marathon. I had been planning to go for an easy 2 mile run on Thursday but I was having some pretty serious pain in my knee all week after MCM that I skipped it.

On Friday night, I had resigned to the fact that I would probably have to walk the 5k since 1) my knee was hurting so badly and 2) I wasn't about to DNS my last 9+1 race.

The race started at the United Nations which was awesome. I was definitely happy to be starting a race in front of Dag Hammerskjold Plaza..talk about combining my two loves: running and international affairs. We ran down 1st Avenue past the UN to 42nd Street and then from 42nd Street to 6th Avenue where we made a right turn and entered Central Park East before turning left to run the lower part of the park before finishing at Tavern on the Green at the New York City Marathon Finish Line.

That's me with the black/neon green jacket around my waist approaching the NYC Marathon Finish Line!

When the gun went off, I started running. I wanted to see how my knee would hold up before I resorted to walking. My knee was definitely hurting and I started getting a strange pain in the bone right all in the first mile. I stopped for a second at Mile 2 to massage it and then I felt fine! I ran Mile 1 in 8:54 and evened out Miles 2 and 3 at 7:49 before crossing the Finish in 25:16...offshooting my PR by 7 seconds.
I was so excited. It wasn't a PR but hey, to run a 5k just one week after running a marathon and only missing my PR by 7 seconds? I was one happy girl!

The race itself was a lot of fun. I loved running alongside so many people from around the world who were in town for the marathon and finishing at the Marathon Finish Line was pretty cool especially since this race was my guarantee that on this day next year, I'll be crossing that same finish line after running 26.2.

Three Things Thursday

2011-11-03T23:21:00.000-04:00

I never post this late but I'm taking a break from writing a paper and wanted to get this post in before Thursday is over so here goes!

1. Back to Normal - I got back to New York on Tuesday morning and headed straight to work. Luckily, things have been pretty quiet this week although I'm struggling a bit to catch up on school work that I didn't do over Marathon Weekend. Surprisingly, I haven't had much of an appetite at all since the race and I'm basically forcing myself to eat my standard 5 small meals a day. I've heard this is common but I'm concerned it might have something to do with the stomach issues I've been having. I went and got a fantastic 90 minute sports therapy massage after work today and already I'm feeling better. I haven't made the return to running just yet though. I've been a little too sore and dealing with a nagging pain in my right knee that I'm trying to nurse before Saturday's 5k.

2. ING New York City Marathon - I have to say, I'm glad I'm not running the New York City Marathon this year. To be perfectly honest, I don't think I'd enjoy it and I don't think I'd run a good race. Don't get me wrong, I would love to run the New York City Marathon and I know it's a great race and next year, I will run it but I think with my unresolved issues with New York and the way I currently feel about New York Road Runners, I think I'll be able to enjoy the race a lot more next year when I'm a bit more detached from it all. Now that's not to say I'm not thrilled for everyone running it this weekend and believe me, I will be in Central Park cheering my head off just like I was last year but it was a blessing in disguise that I didn't make it into the lottery this year.

3. Philly - I'm running the Philadelphia Half-Marathon in 3 weeks. I registered ages ago and to be honest, I don't really remember why. I loved the Philly course last year and I'm glad that I'm not hanging up my running shoes for the winter after MCM because last year, I didn't run for almost 4 weeks following Philly and it was so hard to jump back into running in the middle of the winter. So I plan to keep running through the winter by racing Philly, the Hot Chocolate 15k and then taking some easy time off but still keeping some shorter distance runs in there before gearing up for my next training cycle.

That's all for tonight!
I'm off to go finish a paper about humanitarian aid distribution in Somalia.

Any big plans for this weekend?

Are you running the NYC Marathon?

October Recap

2011-11-02T19:00:00.000-04:00

First of all, thank you all for your congratulatory messages on my big PR at the Marine Corps Marathon on Sunday! I love reading all of your messages and they're definitely helping me bask in the post-marathon glow!

Now, I think I say this every month but I refuse to be one of those people who is all "Oh my God! This month just flew by!"

October was 5 weeks this year. It didn't fly by.

But that doesn't stop it from being an awesome month.

I had a lot of hiccups this month. I was falling apart with school (still kind of am) and was fighting a lot of stomach issues. But this October, I ran 2 half-marathons and 1 full marathon. I PRd my half-marathon distance by 2 1/2 minutes and PRd the marathon by 5 minutes! I finished out the month with more miles on my shoes than I had ever logged before and logged my highest weekly mileage.

When I started this list and put "Run a Marathon" as my #1 goal, I had no idea that it would turn into this. I love running. I love the fact that while I'm recovering from MCM, I have 3 more races on my calendar to finish out the year before taking it some time off and easing into Marathon Training Cycle #3.

But there's still that matter of my 25 Before 25 list...which I've been doing ok with.

With the end of baseball season, and the Rangers blowing it for a 2nd consecutive year (thanks guys), I'm happy to say that I made it to 15 Major League baseball stadiums all in a matter of about a year. When I started this list, I had only been to 3. I had a choice to make this summer: travel all over the world, or stay local and see a bunch of ball parks. It's obvious which choice I made and while I didn't make it to every MLB stadium, I made it to Half and that is a huge accomplishment.

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So until baseball season starts up again, I'm letting this go as one thing I didn't cross off my list. Like I've said before, it's an ambitious list and hey, 15 ball parks? That's more than most people will go to in a lifetime so I'm one happy girl.

Even though I didn't make it to all of the ball parks before my 25th (which is still almost 4 months away), I have done a few things this month to cross things off The List.

I read the Books of Matthew, Mark and Luke and am almost finished reading through The Bible.
I read the trilogy "His Dark Materials" by Phillip Pullman which counts as one book off The Book List (even though it's 3)
I watched the movie "Spirited Away" off The Movie List...super cute!
I finally managed to get my credit balance below 40% of what the initial balance was! I haven't used it since June and am so close to paying it off!

So I'm working on it! The getting my credit card balance down is also a huge part of becoming financially self sufficient...which will be difficult to manage until I get a real job...after I finish my Master's which is all happening soon!

This will be me in a few short months! At Yankee Stadium...gross

Big things are coming my way! Big things!

By the way, this is also my 250th post! I'm so happy I've kept up with this blog and thank you all for reading it every day!

Marine Corps Marathon Race Recap

2011-11-01T18:46:00.000-04:00

I don't think it's possible to write an accurate recap for this race because there are so many points that got me across the Finish Line with a shiny new PR early Sunday afternoon that I couldn't possibly put into words.

I was nervous about this race. More nervous than I was when I ran my first marathon in Philly last year. I could not have asked for a better first marathon and I was nervous about anything going wrong in DC and how I would handle it since Philly was so flawless.

This race definitely wasn't perfect but I'm so unbelievably thrilled with how I did in this race, it's bringing tears to my eyes just writing about.

This was Mile 18 1/2, I took it on my run Friday night. I LOVE running in DC.

I fought so damn hard to PR this race that when I crossed the Finish Line, I collapsed. But before we get to that whole bit of me crossing the Finish Line, we need to talk about the 26.2 miles that got me there, don't we?
I'll skip the details of everything that happened over the weekend leading up to the the race but just know that it involved a lot of Expo, a not-so-spontaneous registration for an international marathon with this girl, a zombified Dora the Explorer, snow, and The Pilot commandeering (well, not really) an Amtrak train to get to DC about 30 minutes before I went to sleep on Saturday night after all flights out of Newark Airport were cancelled.

My bib and commemorative patch

Sunday morning, Mom and The Pilot woke up to me bouncing off the walls with energy screaming "It's marathon day! I'm running a marathon today!" I got dressed, ate some breakfast, triple checked to make sure I had everything and headed out the door.

We decided to take the Metro which was nice and easy although the line from the Pentagon station to the actual starting line was at least a mile long...and we were freezing. I got to the Start about 5 minutes before the gun went off which was perfect. I lined up in the 3:45-4:00 corral and we were off.

The second I crossed that starting line, tears just shot through me. From the Marines lining up along the side of the start to the loud cheering from the spectators, it was everything in me to not well up. "Here we go," I thought, "Marathon #2, it's time to kill this!"

The first 14 miles absolutely flew by. I felt fantastic. I was hitting all of the targets on pace for a sub 3:55 and I felt fantastic. I was having fun enjoying the spectators, I was killing it up the hills, I was striking up conversations with people left and right, I felt great! It was truly humbling to be running alongside Marines, especially those that had "Running for ______ K.I.A." or the one guy I saw running with a prosthetic leg, or the woman I saw wearing a USMC shirt powering up the hills in a wheel chair. Running with the Marines made me one proud marathoner.

It took me a while to get warmed up in the first mile but after that I started getting warm and quickly started shedding my layers. We hit the first hill right at about the quarter mile mark and it was a steady climb to Mile 2 and then a pretty steady descent to Mile 4. Miles 4-6.5 were pretty flat and then 7-8 were a pretty steep hill with a pretty steep descent through Miles 9-10. The rest of the course was flat as a pancake until Mile 26.

I took a Gu around Mile 5 and around Mile 10, wanted another one but was worried how my stomach would handle it since I've been having so many issues with my stomach so I held off until around Mile 11. It started bothering my stomach but not too badly so I kept on pushing. At this point in the race, I was absolutely thrilled with my consistency as you can see from my splits below. Miles 5 - 13 were extremely consistent (save for the hill at Mile 7). I was running a smart race and I knew it. I just had to hold on to this through the whole thing and I'd be set. And at that point, I knew I could do it. I came in the Half at 1:56:41 and was ecstatic. Now, it was time to maintain the pace and push through the last 10k to come in with a negative split and a huge PR.

Splits (Miles 1-20)
Mile 1 - 9:10 Mile 6 - 8:41 Mile 11 - 8:38 Mile 16 - 9:00
Mile 2 - 9:17 Mile 7 - 9:17 Mile 12 - 8:45 Mile 17 - 9:06
Mile 3 - 8:53 Mile 8 - 8:45 Mile 13 - 8:51 Mile 18 - 10:05
Mile 4 - 8:21 Mile 9 - 8:42 Mile 14 - 8:56 Mile 19 - 9:00
Mile 5 - 8:48 Mile 10 - 8:42 Mile 15 - 9:00 Mile 20 - 9:54

That obviously didn't happen. Around Mile 15, my stomach was in knots. I haven't eaten dairy in 12 days, wtf is wrong with you? was about all I could keep thinking. At Mile 17, I grabbed some Gatorade from the Marines and kept going. We were on the National Mall at this point and I loved running through the Mall. I especially loved all of the "That's what she said signs." Whatever works, right? I started cramping up a bit at this point so I stopped to stretch out my quads and hamstrings and jumped right back into the race. I felt fine and eased back into a 9 minute mile but my stomach was just starting to hurt and I needed a bathroom and couldn't see one anywhere.

Then we hit that damn 14th Street Bridge and I realized that "Beating the Bridge" was about a lot more than time. That bridge was the death of me. It was endless. 2 miles long with no spectators and nothing but water around you, I started getting nauseous, my stomach was a mess and I started to just break down. But I was still well on pace for about a 3:55 marathon so I just needed to hold it together. When we finally crossed the bridge, I looked to my left and saw the massive Out and Back that would take us through Crystal City...and then I looked to my right and saw what looked like another massive out and back loop that would take us back to Iwo Jima and I started to fall apart. Everything hurt. My stomach was a mess. I hadn't seen my mom or boyfriend along the course and I was just hurting. I wanted a hug, I wanted to cry, I wanted someone to run with me. I knew that Katie, Lauren and Morgan would be up ahead around Mile 22 so I pushed it to get to them.

Splits (Last 10k)
Mile 21 - 9:07
Mile 22 - 9:27
Mile 23 - 9:15
Mile 24 - 10:24
Mile 25 - 10:05
Mile 26 - 10:16

They saw me before I saw them. I heard Katie scream out "There she is" and I grabbed her and heard Morgan say, "Go! She wants you to run with her." Oops, sorry for throwing that on you Katie! She jumped in with me as I made my way back around and gave me the best damn pep talk I ever heard. I didn't say a word other than, "It hurts, I'm having a rough time." She told me how smart of a race I was running and how close I was to crushing my PR. She jumped out shortly after and I kept ahead. Around Mile 24, I just lost it. I had to start walking. My knee was hurting, my stomach was in knots and I felt like 2.2 miles at this point could have been 26.2. As I was power walking, I saw a Marine woman up ahead and she just looked at me and said, "Come on, you've got this." And I started running. When I we came up on Mile 26, I started sprinting my little heart out.

Katie made me smile and wave for Morgan's camera and pretend I didn't feel like dying

Except that it wasn't Mile 26. My Garmin had measured true to the course the entire way and every recap I've read has said that this course measured long so when my Garmin said Mile 26 and I didn't see the Mile Marker, I just started sprinting looking for that infamous hill up to Iwo Jima. Then I hit the wall.

By wall, I don't mean the proverbial marathon wall. I mean the wall that was the hill up to the Finish Line. I started running up that hill and just lost it. I got so damn dizzy and nauseous, I completely blacked out, ran into a guy in front of me and had to start walking so I could get my sight back. Everyone around me was literally bent over at a 90 degree angle just trying to climb that hill...and I still couldn't see the damn Finish Line. When I came to, I started running again, I was so dizzy and I could see the Finish Line but I honestly didn't think I was going to make it across. The guy next to me completely collapsed into the barricades. Another person went down. People were dropping like flies, and here we were, 1/10 of the mile from the Finish Line. I wish I could say I hauled ass across that Finish Line but realistically, I shuffled across it and collapsed.

4:03:10. A 5 1/2 minute marathon PR.

I passed out for what was probably only about 10 seconds and when I came to, there was a Marine asking me if I was ok and needed a medic. I told him I just needed to walk it off and he helped me to my feet and I started walking. I was so dizzy and I felt like I had swallowed a brick. I grabbed some Powerade and swallowed it down, grabbed my space blanket and a bagel and laid down in the grass for about 10 minutes. Then I got up and walked over to grab my medal. The Marine who put it around me said, "Congratulations, I could never do what you just did." I just smiled and thanked him for his service to our country.

By far the BEST medal I have ever received at a race.

My one regret about this race is not taking a picture in front of the Iwo Jima Memorial when I finished. But my only thought when I crossed that Finish Line was finding a bathroom.. Talk about the edge of glory, right? My thoughts should have been reveling in my new PR, finding my friends and family and loving that fact that I had finished my 2nd marathon but in all honesty, I was so unbelievably sick on my stomach for the next 24 hours that I didn't even have time to start thinking about those things until last night.

I could barely stand up straight...good thing I had a handsome Pilot there to hold on to.

I ran an awesome marathon. I can't complain about a single thing. I may not have hit my A goal and I may not have come in sub-4 but I had an awesome PR and I fought so many things that could have brought me to a grinding halt at this race. I'm proud to say that I'm a two-time marathoner. I'm proud to say that I ran a 4:03 marathon and I'm proud to say that I ran with the United States Marine Corps because that was truly humbling.

To all of you who were following me throughout the race and sending me texts and tweets, thanks a million. You all rock my socks.

Marathon #2...in the books!

Marine Corps Marathon Race Goals

2011-10-27T11:57:00.000-04:00

The Marine Corps Marathon is 3 days away! WOOHOO!

I. Am. So. PUMPED.

I feel so ready for this race and I'm so excited to take DC by storm because I know that this weekend, I'm going to have the best time of my life...even though that's the slogan for this year's Philly Marathon.

Here's the thing. I love DC. I absolutely adore our Nation's Capitol. It's my favorite city in America and nothing would make me happier at this point in time than being able to call that city home. But until I can do that, I'll be toeing the line at the Marine Corps Marathon this weekend...and the Hot Chocolate 15k in December...and the Cherry Blossom 10-mile in April.

On my first trip to DC in 2008!

When I started training for this race, I was in India. I never wrote about how bad my first training run was but those 4 miles were the worst 4 miles of my life. I honestly thought I was going to die...and I seriously contemplated seeking medical attention after sweating my way through 105 degrees with 98% humidity in a long sleeved t-shirt.

I've come a long way since then. From good runs to great runs to bad runs to horrible runs. I poured my heart into this training cycle. I cross-trained. I strength trained...sometimes. I ran 5 days a week instead of 4. I hit all of my target runs. I didn't miss a workout until I was well into my 3rd month of training. I listened to my body. I paid attention to injuries. I rested when I felt like my body needed rest.

I could not be more ready for this marathon.

When I ran the Philadelphia Marathon, my goal was, first and foremost, to finish and second, to finish in as close to 4 hours as possible. I crossed the line at 4:08 elated.

Now, as I'm gearing up to run Marathon #2, I've got some more specific goals in mind.

A Goal: 3:50
I've been weary of posting that number and talking about my A goal on this blog this entire training cycle but I'm finally going to put it out there. 3:50 is my A goal. I'd love to hit it. I know it's possible and I know I can do it, it's just a matter of execution. Running a 3:50 marathon requires that I maintain a 3:46 pace. I've been really successful at running my MGP runs at this and I've done all of my tempo runs at 8:30 or faster so I know this is a possibility.

B Goal: Sub-4
Last year, when I crossed the starting line of the Philadelphia Marathon, the Nike+ app on my iPod wouldn't start. So I ran a very conservative first half. When I saw that I was at around a 2:08 for the first half, I knew I could push it a lot harder since my half marathon PR at the time had been just under 2:01 so I pushed it and came in the second half in 2 hours flat. Now, my half marathon PR is a solid 3 minutes under 2 hours so I know a sub-4 marathon is within reach. Now, the closer I can get to 3:50, the happier I'll be.

No matter what happens on Sunday morning, I can say that I will come away from this weekend feeling so utterly blessed. I already feel that way.

I have an amazing mom who has never, ever stopped supporting me in anything I've ever done. From driving me 2 hours there and back to rehearsals for Grease when I was in high school because she knew it was the only thing that was holding me together through a really rough time to getting up at 3:00 in the morning to drive to Boston and surprise me at my first half-marathon to printing out the full 15 page Powerpoint Spectators' Guide to the Marine Marathon so that she doesn't miss a moment of Sunday's race.

I have a wonderful boyfriend who, after dating for almost 3 years, still manages to make my heart skip a beat every single time I see him and who somehow managed to finagle a way to make it down to the race this weekend because he genuinely wants to be there, who is so unbelievably supportive of the fact that sometimes, I just have to run.

I have the best group of friends I could ever ask for. My friends in DC are seriously my favorite people in the world. When they're around, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that I'm going to have a fantastic time. I can't wait to see the boys tonight and everyone else tomorrow at their Zombie Halloween Party. And I can't wait to see them ~~hung over~~ standing on the side lines as I run my way through their city.

I have an unbelievable support system in this blog. It's because of all of your comments, tweets, emails, froyo dates, etc. through this entire training cycle that I'm going for an 18 minute PR. I started tracking my training on this blog more as a way of holding myself accountable than anything. I never thought I would get so much advice, feed back and inspiration from those of you who have commented on all of my Training Tuesday posts over the last 4 months.

I can't wait to see these fine ladies at Mile 23!

Tonight, I'm flying to Washington, DC to have an amazing weekend with friends, family, bloggers, 30,000 other runners and of course, the United States Marine Corps. All my bags are packed and I'm ready to go and I couldn't be more excited.

I'll definitely try to post over the weekend before Sunday but no promises here! If not, you'll here from me on the other side of 26.2!

Cookies, Massages and Shopping, Oh My!

2011-10-25T23:51:00.002-04:00

Late night post today. So much for going to sleep early every night this week.

At least I have a good excuse. I have cookies in the oven!

My office is hosting a midterm study break on Thursday for all the kiddies and I volunteered to bake for it...so I've got cookies in the oven.

Pumpkin white chocolate chip! Courtesy of Emilia

Yesterday was rough. I've been going through some stuff and was really feeling it yesterday. I wrote that post so many times before I actually posted it and then I spent about 30 minutes contemplating deleting it before I just let it go and went to bed. I'm felling much better today though.

This morning, I worked. I had debilitating cramps all morning so getting out of bed and doing just about everything was really tough. I'm still not 100% but I'm getting there. Thank you Mother Nature for paying me this lovely visit on Race Week.

After work, I headed up to midtown for a massage. I figured with all the stress I was under, it would only do me good. It was an ok massage. I had a Groupon for it and the place had 4 stars on Yelp so I decided to go for it. It wasn't the best but it did the trick. I definitely think I'm going to run a better race this weekend because I got it so that's a plus.

At least they had pretty flowers.

Afterwards, I took myself shopping. I went to the Nike store looking for arm sleeves for Sunday since it's going to be a bit on the chilly side in the morning and they were all out of my size, so I headed to Paragon and they only had wool...ummm who wears wool sleeves to run in? From there I headed to the 6th Avenue Shops: Marshall's, TJ Maxx, Bed Bath and Beyond, Sports Authority and a slew of other places before making my way to Jack Rabbit and back home.

Don't get too excited, I bought GUs, some honey stinger waffles, cleaning supplies, a shower curtain and some bath mats. I'm so hard core, I know. I didn't come home with any sleeves though. The girls at Jack Rabbit suggested I buy them at the Expo but I'm worried they won't have any so I'm going to have to ~~beg~~ sweeten up The Pilot and convince him to go to our local running store at home and pick some up for me if I can't find any in New York or DC on Thursday or Friday.

Overall, I'm feeling really good about the marathon. I'm surprisingly calm but still really excited. I'm just taking this week one day at a time. Tomorrow, I'll spend the evening packing and getting together some last minute things and Thursday night I head out. I'm still formulating my race strategy and working on my play list but I'll post all about those this week!

In the mean time, I've got work, school, laundry, more baking and possibly a short trip to JFK Airport to see my dad and brother who are in town for a quick layover on their way to Belgium but that might be tough to fit in tomorrow.

Well, the cookies are out of the oven and I'm off to bed! Hope you're all having a lovely week!

Love/Don't Love

2011-10-24T22:00:00.001-04:00

I started this post about 4 times this morning before deleting it and saying "Hey Christy, no one wants to listen to you being an angry bitch on Monday morning." Don't Love.

Now, after getting through my day with the help of some deep breathing exercises, nutella hot chocolate, and a race registration, I'm feeling much better. Love.

Nutella hot chocolate...yum.

This weekend was rough. Saturday was just one of those days that didn't have enough hours in it. My mom came to spend the afternoon with me and I spent almost the whole time crying to her about everything in the world that is stressing me out right now. I don't think I realized how stressed out I was until I just let it all out to her. I felt really bad about that. Don't Love.

Sunday, I worked. From 8am to 7pm. Well technically until 5:30 but there was a car fire (scariest thing ever) in the Lincoln Tunnel that kept me from getting back to New York until super late...when I finally did get home, I made the most delicious homemade marinara sauce and poured it over some pasta only to drop it on my way to the kitchen table, shatter my plate and spill it everywhere...15 minutes before I had to go to another work-related event. When I got back, I spent the rest of the night cleaning my entire apartment from the marinara sauce that was everywhere and well, let's just say that my day continued to suck right up until my head hit the pillow. Don't Love.

Pretty much what me and my apartment looked like last night.

So yea, it was a tough weekend which never translates to a good Monday but when I got out of work this morning, I made myself some nutella hot choclolate and oh so appropriately registered for the Hot Chocolate 15k which I'll be racing in DC on December 3 with Christine, Emily and Celia. Love.

THE MARINE CORPS MARATHON IS THIS WEEKEND! Hold on a second...what?? I've spent 4 months training and Race Week finally hits and it doesn't even hit me. Don't worry, it will. I'm running a marathon this weekend and I'm going to dominate it. Love. Love. Love.

For reasons that I would rather not get into, I don't have my camera charger. I haven't had it in 4 months and have gotten away with borrowing other people's. I don't have that option this time around. If I don't get my charger back by Thursday, I'm going to hurt someone. Don't Love.

I'm getting a massage tomorrow. I think all of the stress I'm under needs to be worked out of my back, hips and neck so I'm going to get that all worked out before the race. Love.

Well, I'm off. I need to get some sleep because tomorrow I have to bake about 200 cookies. And get a massage. It's going to be great.

Three Things Thursday

2011-10-20T11:01:00.000-04:00

1. Redecorating - I've been redecorating my apartment all week...well, decorating since I never quite got around to that. I just haven't had the time since I moved in but I've been going through each room this week cleaning, rearranging furniture and putting in some accent pieces and decorations. The good thing is that it hasn't cost me a dime yet. I'm planning to go shopping for some things tomorrow but I'm planning to keep it all minimal. I just really want my apartment to feel like "home" rather than just the place I hang my hat. Once it's all done, I'll post a photo tour of my place!

This is not my apartment (I wish!) but I love how light and airy it is...that's what I'm doing for!

2. Stomach Issues - I've been having a lot of stomach issues lately. At first I thought it was just when I was running but I'm starting to realize it's a bit more constant than that. When I was a baby, I was allergic to milk and dairy and as I grew up, that turned into a lactose intolerance. By my Freshman year of college, that had gone away and I could eat basically anything I wanted without any problems but that's not the case anymore and my stomach is just really sensitive these days...especially after my longs runs. I've been a vegetarian for 5 years and while I would never, ever consider being vegan because I just don't think it's healthy, I'm thinking about cutting dairy out of my diet for the next week to see if my stomach settles. I'm not sure if making that kind of change is smart 10 days out from a marathon but I'm trying to avoid stomach issues on race day. If dairy happens to be the issue, I'll just have to slowly start incorporating meat back into my diet but for now, it seems like that's what's going on...I mean, I put cheese on everything.

3. Tough Semester - I'm having a tough semester. There, I said it. In all honesty, I hate this semester. I only like one of my classes and it's at night, so I'm always exhausted half way through it. I feel like I'm super behind on everything because ever since I started getting into my long runs, I've been too sick afterward to do anything else (see above #2) and to be honest, a lot of things have happened this semester that have left me really unhappy with my program. After this semester, I'm done. I spend next semester writing my thesis and then I graduate and I really just need to get to December because right now, school is the one thing that's weighing me down.

So tell me: Have you recently redecorating any part of your apartment? What have you done and what do you like about it? Do have stomach issues when you run? Any advice for what to do?

10 days until the Marine Corps Marathon!

I've set up my Twitter account to post my splits so if you want to see how I'm doing, feel free to follow me on Race Day @ChristyTurns25!

Love/Don't Love

2011-10-17T17:43:00.001-04:00

1. For the last three weeks, The Pilot and I have been pretty sure that he wouldn't be able to make it to DC for the marathon. As a newbie pilot with the airline, his ability to take days off is virtually non-existent but somehow he was able to finagle the day off and so for the second time in my running career, I'll be stealing kisses at Mile 6 and sharing space blanket hugs at the finish line with my handsome guy. Love.

2. I was planning to go to yoga this morning but instead spent my entire morning sitting in front of my computer finishing a paper. Don't Love.
3. Yesterday, I ran 15 miles in Central Park. Despite the fact that Central Park was absolute chaos because of the breast cancer walk, I had a great run and for the first time ever after doing a long run, I'm not sore at all...which is a huge improvement from not being able to walk for 2 days after last week's 21-miler. Love.

At the SI Half Finish Line.
No fist pump, no wave, no smile...clearly I waned this race to be over.

4. My knee was bothering me for the first 3 or so miles of yesterday's run. It also bothered me around Mile 2 of the Staten Island Half which is what led me to resort to walking. I've been icing, RICE-ing, arctic easing, etc. but I'm a little concerned as to whether it gives me problems at MCM. Don't Love.
5. Pan-Am was so good last night! Love.
6. School is getting harder. Lately I find myself saying, "I just need to get through this week and I'll be fine"...except I've been saying that for the last three weeks. Don't Love.

via

7. I'm thrilled that so many of you share in my ~~obsession~~ commitment to all things pumpkin. Love.

That's that! I only have about 6 weeks to get through the semester. That's 1 midterm, 2 papers and 1 final. I can totally handle it...I just need to get through this week first...

I hope your week is off to a great start!
Congratulations to everyone who raced this weekend!

It's not obsession, it's commitment!

2011-10-16T17:18:00.000-04:00

With that title, you would think I'd be defending my running hobby in this post.

You'd be wrong.

While I do get the occasional, "Oh my God, stop running, you're obsessed!" comments from people, I brush them off because yes, I am committed to running. I run 5 days a week, I hardly ever drink and my calendar is filled with more races than anything.

But today I'm not talking about racing, I'm talking about something else.

Pumpkins!

Yesterday morning, I woke up and had a bagel with pumpkin cream cheese. Then, I showered and washed my hair with pumpkin shampoo. After that, I had a slice of toast with pumpkin butter. Then I went to The Cheesecake Factory and had a giant piece of pumpkin pecan cheesecake and believe me, when I got back to my apartment and saw the Coolhaus truck outside the door with their brand new flavor of pumpkin pie ice cream, the only thing holding me back was the lack of cash in my wallet and my refusal to pay a $2.50 ATM fee at a bank that's not my own.

Try it. It's wonderful...and no, you won't smell like pumpkins all day.

It's not obsession, it's commitment.

2 years ago, I thought pumpkin pie tastes like lipstick (Mrs. Smith did that to me) but a free sample of Starbucks' pumpkin spice latte turned that around real fast. Since then, I've spent my last three Octobers consuming everything pumpkin in sight sometimes eating as many as 5 different things with pumpkin in them in a day.

It's not obsession, it's commitment.

Thursday night, I needed to get out of the city so a trip to Mom's was in order. I got in late after an absolute nightmare train debacle involving New Jersey transit...from now on, I'd rather walk to Jersey, thanks....and after watching Thursday night TV with my mom and The Pilot, headed to bed.

Friday, it was time for an early morning run. You know what I learned? I do have the taper crazies. My taper crazies are that I don't want to run...ever. It took a lot to get me out the door but when I headed out for my 8 mile tempo run with 4 miles at 8:20, I was convince I couldn't do it. Guess what? I did. I think aiming for a BQ marathon is definitely in my future. Yea, I said it.

When I got back, The Pilot picked me up and said we were going for a "surprise." 45 minutes later, we pulled up in front of the Philadelphia Pretzel Factory in Princeton, NJ and holy goodness after that morning's oatmeal, bagel (with pumpkin cream cheese of course) and toast, those decadent Philly pretzels put me on carbo-overload...which I didn't think was possible for someone in marathon training. Nonetheless, they were delicious...even without any kind of pumpkin goodness spread across them.

Nothing says carbs like soft pretzels!

I thought the pretzels were the surprise because well hey, they were surprising but The Pilot had something else in store. He drove us 5 miles to a farm where we could go pumpkin picking. Pumpkins and delicious carbs? Holy goodness guys, I've said it before but is this guy a keeper or what?

The Orchard had the most adorable little farm store!

We went to an orchard that had apples, pumpkins, ponies(!), a petting zoo, a corn maze, a winery, the works! First, we paid a visit to the petting zoo and fed some goats. (Unfortunately, The Pilot had led me to believe we were going to the movies for surprise date day so pictures are minimal) Then, we got lost in a corn maze eventually finding our way through the entrance again...no need to call 911 here folks. Then we went wine tasting and then picked our pumpkins! As you can see from the photo above, I picked a short fat 13lb-er. The Pilot wanted baby sized pumpkins. Just as we were making our way to the farm store to pay, a thunderstorm struck so we hung out in the farm store and bought a bunch of stuff before making a run for it to the car...me with 13lb pumpkin in tow.

Then we went back to The Pilot's house and turned my big fat pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern!

Yay!

We tried to carve The Pilot's pumpkins but they were really hard and we gave up.

We drank apple cider and finished off a fantastic freshly baked apple pie that we picked up from the Orchard and then we went our separate ways for the night and I went to sleep.

Yesterday, I didn't run. I didn't feel like it. But I did eat a lot of pumpkin.

Today, I ran 15 miles...and currently have a loaf of pumpkin bread in the oven. I'm also writing a 15 page paper...wish I could have written a page a mile this morning. *Sigh*

All in all, it's been a great weekend. Unfortunately, Fall Break is over and I've got to get back to school tomorrow but hey, I'm graduating 7 months from today! Woo!

I hope you're all having great weekends and are recovering from any kind of physical activity that you did today by doing something other than writing papers about failed African economies. I also hope you ate a lot of pumpkin.

And to everyone who raced today, great job!

Three Things Thursday

2011-10-13T11:31:00.002-04:00

1. Wafels & Dinges - If you live in New York and don't know what Wafels & Dinges is then I'm about to enlighten you. Wafels & Dinges is a food truck that I have fallen in love with. They're a Belgian waffle truck that let's you put a whole bunch of different dinges (pronounced ding-uhs) on top of them including: nutella, strawberries, pears, blueberries, nutella, bananas, spekuloos spread (it tastes like gingerbread), maple syrup, nutella, walnuts, hot fudge, nutella, dulce de leche, ice cream, oh and did I mention nutella? I've had the wafel truck twice...but I always see them when I'm at like Mile 4 of a double digit run in Central Park and get really angry that a)I'm running and b)don't have any cash. Not only are the wafeleurs the sweetest guys around who are always happy to strike up a conversation with you but yesterday, I learned that they're sent to Belgium to learn how to make their wafels and that all of the fruit they use comes from local farms. Umm does it get any better?

Last night's waffle: Delicious...I never wanted it to end!

2. Race Weekend - Yesterday, after exchanging several emails, texts and phone calls, I've finally started nailing down my race weekend plans and I'm getting super excited. No, I do not want to run the marathon NOW (see, I'm not taper crazy!) but I absolutely want to run it on October 30. Race Weekend is already shaping up to be fantastic...so far it will involve flying to DC (because I'm lazy and it's free), emptying my savings at the Expo, eating all of the pasta in the District, a Zombie party (which I'm pretty stoked for), sight seeing with my madre, eating more pasta and hanging out with the insane amount of bloggers who will be descending on our Nation's Capital for the weekend. I'm pretty sure it's going to be the best weekend ever...right now, there's only one thing missing and he knows what it is and is working on it so cross your fingers for me!

30,000 runners? That's way bigger than Philly was!

3. His Dark Materials - I finished another book off "The Book List." Actually, 3 books but I totally got gypped because the book was listed as 1 book but it was actually a trilogy...so my 100 books is actually 103. Rude. Anyway, "His Dark Materials" by Phillip Pullman is a trilogy that includes "The Golden Compass," (you may have seen the movie with Nicole Kidman), "The Subtle Knife" and "The Amber Spyglass." I loved the first 2 books. The third...not so much, it was really long and in the last paragraph of the book, instead of wrapping it up, they introduced something entirely new. which threw me way off. And even though when I started the series last month, everyone told me not to watch the movie, I think I will. I'll let you know what I think!

It's Thursday! It's been a short week for me! I'm having an "I don't feel like running" kind of day which I need to get over and then I'm off to spend the weekend writing papers, hangin' with my honey and doing all things Fall. It's definitely starting to feel like baking weather!

So tell me: Do you have any food trucks where you live? What are your favorites? Are you a New Yorker who's been wafeled? If so, what are your favorite dinges?

Training (Taper) Tuesday: Week 12

2011-10-11T13:12:00.002-04:00

Ahh it's that time of the season: taper time.

A lot of runners, I've noticed, get the "taper crazies" when they hit this point in the season. I think those runners are crazy. (No offense). Meggie put it best when she said that because of school/work, tapering is a nice relief and I think that's the same case here. Tapering is coming for me at the same time as midterms, so it's nice not to have to be hitting that high mileage as school is getting a little crazy.

The last few training weeks (when I've skipped my Training Tuesdays) have been pretty rough. I was smart and took an entire week off to ward off an injury and now, I'm better than ever. Then, I ran two half-marathons in 2 weeks...which apparently qualifies me for Half Fanatic membership...and boy did those runs take their toll.

At the first one, I had a tough race, thought about quitting and ended up with a 2 1/2 minute PR.

Woo! Happy! I didn't quit!

At the second one, I had a brutal race. I added 8 miles to the start and walked/ran through a lot of it, coming in at an almost 20 minute PW. But you know what? I never once thought about quitting. I think I learned from Grete's Gallop that if I could push through and PR, quitting would never be an excuse.

I don't have pictures of this one...but I almost collapsed at the finish line so I really don't want to see those.

So that means I'm ready for Marine Corps. I'm ready to take it all on. Part of me is terrified. I had an amazing first marathon. Everything went perfectly. Sure, I cramped up at Mile 18 but I stopped and stretched for a minute and still managed a negative split and an awesome race.

Woo! Look at me! I Just ran a marathon!

I'd like to have that again at Marine Corps. I don't want to feel the way I did at these last two halves. But you know what, I think I will. I think these two halves, as hard as they were, are exactly what I need to tuck away pull out when things start to get tough at MCM.

So this week I'm scaling back. I have 8 miles on deck but my body feels pretty trashed so I think I'm going to go for 4 or 5. We'll see how I feel. I have a short tempo run planned for tomorrow and then a few easy runs before tackling 15 on Sunday.

In the mean time, the Post Office lost my Garmin. That's right. They lost it. They tried to deliver it to the wrong address on Saturday so I didn't have it for Sunday and now they don't know where it is. I'm pissed. They also claim they can't be accountable because they supposedly left a notice at my door saying they tried to deliver it...which is funny because this building doesn't do notices, my staff at the front desk signs for all packages and when I was working on Saturday and got all of the mail and signed for other people's packages, it never came.

I'm not happy. But I'm going to go for a run and pray that when I get back, my Garmin is here.

Love/Don't Love

2011-10-10T17:53:00.003-04:00

1. Yesterday was by far the hardest race I've ever run but looking back on it, it wasn't the worst race ever and I think that running 21 miles and actually finishing the half is something to remember when I toe the line in DC on October 30. Love.

Stolen from Jill's Facebook page

2. I am unbelievably sore today. My quads are screaming at me and my glutes feel a little bit like someone stabbed me in the ass. Don't Love.
3. I took advantage of my apartment's pool for the first time today (I know what's wrong with me??) and spent about half an hour leisurely swimming in the pool. It felt so good to be in the water. Love.
4. Today is Columbus Day which is not cool. I think it's pathetic that America still celebrates Columbus Day. I'm definitely not an overly sensitive minority but he landed on the island of my ancestors and raped and pillaged the island for its people and resources...and then brought his friends over to do it all over the Caribbean before he got to what is now America. Sure, let's celebrate him. Don't Love.

5. I'm on Fall Break which really doesn't mean a lot except that I'm lying in bed all day writing papers but at least I don't have to go to school. Love.
6. I'm starting to like my classes a lot less and I'm definitely starting to have "senior-itis"...if that's even possible in grad school. Is it May yet? Don't Love.
7. I'm obsessed with the show Pan Am. I'm not a big TV person at all but seriously every time this show ends, I get mad that I have to wait another week for it. Love.


This show is SO good!

8. Even though I felt like yesterday was the worst race ever and that I needed some sort of redemption, after careful consideration and advice from everyone's favorite redhead, I have decided against a 20-miler this weekend. Marine Corps will be my redemption so from here on out, it's taper time! Love.
9. I GOT NEW SHOES! I got them like 2 weeks ago and keep forgetting to blog about them. Umm they are hands down the sexiest running shoes I've ever seen. I decided to switch back to my tried and true Nikes and I've slowly been breaking them in in time for the marathon. Love.

This photo does not do the color justice.

So tell me: How many miles do you typically have on your marathon shoes before Race Day? Do you watch Pan Am? Did you have off for Columbus Day today? Do you get the taper crazies?

Staten Island Half-Marathon Race Recap

2011-10-09T19:02:00.000-04:00

I wish I could have come out of this race like Danielle came out of her marathon last week saying that the list of good things far outweighed the bad...and she had a tough marathon. Instead, I walked out calling it the worst race ever.

When my alarm went off at 5:00 this morning, the first thing that came to my head was "I don't want to run this race." I didn't. I never did. I'm not trying to be a marathon maniac, I didn't want to run 13.1 two weeks in a row so why was I waking up at 5am on a Sunday morning to trek all the way out to Staten Island and run another half?

9+1. FML.

I decided to have a large breakfast since the race didn't start until 8:30am. Oatmeal, toast with almond butter and a banana and orange juice would do the trick for me. I ate, got dressed and headed to the subway to try and catch the 6:30 ferry. I made it there with plenty of time and spent about 20 minutes reading at ~~Runners' Village~~ Whitehall Terminal.

Compression socks everywhere at the Staten Island ferry

We got to Staten Island shortly after 7 and after dropping off my bags and taking off my outer layers, I was on the road for some easy miles before the race started. My legs were pretty dead and I thought it would be good to get some miles on and wake them up. As soon as I took off, I thought, "This course sucks." The supposedly stunning views of Manhattan would have been great if they weren't hidden behind a giant run down warehouse with a rusted barbed wire fence and an overgrown-with-weeds parking lot. Maybe it'll get better after Mile 4. I made my way back to the Start while volunteers were screaming "You're late! You missed the start"...even though I had 15 minutes to get to the start...but when people start yelling like that, you naturally pick up the pace so I did my last few pre-race miles a little faster than I expected. I got to the start just as the back corrals were going through which was perfect because I was able to just keep going.

By Mile 2, I felt like I was in trouble. I was starving. My 5am breakfast 2 1/2 hours before I started running followed by 8 miles wasn't a good thing. I took a Gu and it helped a little bit but my legs were still tired and I didn't want to be running along that same damn boring loop again. I needed energy fast. When I saw the water station at Mile 3, I walked through it to get some Gatorade. And then I kept walking. For about half a mile.

I haven't walked during a race since my first half-marathon. Right there, I lost it. I was so disappointed in myself. Why was I walking??? 11 miles is supposed to be nothing this late in marathon training.

As I crossed over Mile 4, the winner was coming through Mile 10. What?! Last week, I hit Mile 7 as the winner was finishing. That was even more discouraging. We were climbing a hill and I wanted to walk but I stuck with my mentality of last week...if I make it to the top of the hill and I still need to walk, I will. Well, last week that kept me from walking and landed me a huge PR. This time, it resulted in 6 walking breaks. At Mile 2, 4, 6.5, 9, 11 and 12. The course was basically one huge out and back loop. The only time I've run an out and back was for the 6 or so miles toward the end of Philly and it wasn't bad because the spectators were great. From Mile 5, the out and back just started to get to me. I saw that everyone in my corral was on the other side and knew that time-wise, this would be my worst race yet. I was still hungry and my stomach was turning over so I was afraid to take anymore Gus. I stuck with the Gatorade along the course and didn't Gu again until Mile 9. Mile 8 was one long, slow, steep incline that went all the way up to Mile 9. This was the only part of the course that was pretty as we ran right under the Verrazano Bridge. But once we got under the bridge, it was those dreaded 4 miles again.

I started to get my legs going (finally) around Mile 9 but by Mile 11, I was done. And then my iPod died. When I needed music the most, I lost it. I stopped and started walking. I couldn't not do it. I hit a wall. (I'm not sure if it was the wall but I was just completely checked out of this race.) When I saw the mile marker for Mile 12, I told myself, "You are not going to walk the last mile of this race. The faster you run, the sooner it will all be over." By 12.5, I was walking. We hit the long stretch going back to the Finish Line and I said I would run the whole thing and I started running for what felt like forever. Mind you, I was on Mile 20.5 at this point. We went around a little bend and when I didn't see the Mile 13 sign. I just stopped. So did everyone around me. "Jesus Christ!" "Are you f*cking kidding me?" "Where the hell is the damn finish line?" were some of the things being shouted around me. I picked it up and started running and I started feeling like I was going to pass out. It was hot. It felt like July and everything around me got blurry. I started getting really dizzy but damn it, I was so close, if I stopped again, I wasn't finishing. When I finally saw the Mile 13 sign, my mom was standing right underneath it. She came out to surprise me. I was so dead at this point that I couldn't even respond to her. I really thought I was going to collapse on the finish line.

My mom likes to show up at my races and surprise me. (This wasn't today)

This course was dead. There so few spectators, it was sad. The volunteers didn't cheer and I just felt like there were crickets. Even in the last mile and a half stretch, it was silent, no loud cheers from the Finish Line, no spectators lining that last mile. Nothing. It was so depressing to be running such a hard race and having no one cheering along the course.

When I finally crossed, the medical tent was right there. I tried to go through it and they wouldn't let me. I needed to go through the bagel line first. ARE YOU F*CKING SERIOUS? I grabbed a volunteer and said, "If I don't sit down right now, I'm going to faint. I can't see clearly, I can't see anything in front of me and I need to sit down." So they took me in, laid me down on a cot, wrapped my legs in ice, gave me some Gatorade and after going through spins the likes of some of your first drunken nights at college, I finally started to feel a little better and made my way back to find my mom.

I crossed the finish line in 2:13:54. A personal worst by more than 5 minutes. I totaled 21 miles today. My longest training run ever. I didn't have my Garmin (more on that later) and since my iPod with my Nike+ died, I'm not sure how long it took me to get in those first 8 miles. I was also using my Nike+ which was so off, it wasn't even funny. When I hit Mile 4, it told me I was at Mile 5. It also said I was averaging an 8:24 mile and since my legs felt so dead, I assumed I was and kept trying to slow down. When I started actually running the race, I realized how off I was and through any time goals out the window.

This race was bittersweet. On the one hand, it's a huge accomplishment to hit 21 miles and log my longest training distance. On the other hand, 3 weeks out from the marathon, it's a little frightening to be having such a hard run. I attribute it to not wanting to run this race. Plain and simple. Last week, I had just as hard of a race (if not harder, since the course itself was more challenging) but I was excited about it. I wanted to be there. This time around, I mentally wasn't there. So it made the course that much harder. And to deal with the frustrations of having your technology so off when you have a pacing plan made it worse.

So that's it 21 miles. I'm technically tapering now but I might turn next week's scheduled 15 into a 20 just to make myself feel better about tackling the marathon distance for the second time.

This was a tough race. And a tough recap to write (sorry it's so long) but I'm proud of myself for running 21 miles and I'm proud of myself for finishing my 5th half marathon. I'm going to toe the line in DC in 3 weeks and I'm going to have a great run because I know that I don't ever want to have a run like today ever again.

Three Things Thursday

2011-10-06T12:51:00.003-04:00

1. Training Tuesday - I was writing a paper so I didn't get my Training Tuesday post done. Basically, this week I have 3 easy runs, a tempo run and my final long run before kicking it in to taper mode. I may scale that back to 4 runs and skip the tempo run since I'm racing this weekend but we'll see.

2. Grete's Gallop Race Photos - You've all read my race recap by now about this past weekend's half-marathon and know that it was definitely know walk in park but for some reason, in all of my photos, I look like I'm having the time of my life! I've only ever bought my marathon race photos but I might buy some of these because I kind of like them!

Hello awkward wave.

Mile 13!

Annnnnd we're done!

3. Staten Island Half Marathon - This weekend, I'm running the Staten Island Half Marathon. It will by my 8th qualifier for the 2012 NYC Marathon. Since I haven't actually run anything above 18 miles this training cycle, I'm planning to add between 7 and 9 miles to the start to turn this into a 20 or 22-miler. My plan is to take the first 7-9 miles easy and when the race starts, run my marathon goal pace for the first 10 miles and then run like hell for the last 5k. I've heard good things about the race and it's pretty flat but it's the biggest out and back I've ever seen so I'm praying I don't have any music glitches this time around!

Are you racing this weekend? Do you ever buy race photos?

September Recap!

2011-10-03T22:05:00.000-04:00

These days, I'm starting to feel the effects of training for a marathon five days a week in comparison with four. I'm tired a lot and even though I'm lucky enough to get about 9 hours of sleep every night, it doesn't seem like enough.

September was a busy busy month. Between starting a new job, starting school, upping the mileage, traveling for a wedding and having The Pilot move back, I barely had enough time to wrap my head around everything I needed to. But I definitely won't say that September flew by. Call it "2nd year grad student-itis" or what you will, but I feel like this month and the semester is dragging by.

Now I'm the first one to embrace long days and months that feel like they went on forever because hey, life is short, why wish it away? But a teeny tiny bit of me really just wants school to finish so that I can spend my weekends recovering from a long training run by immersing myself in an ice bath and chasing it with a few beers with friends rather than immersing myself in academic journals and texts about sexual violence, genocide and gross human rights violations.

But you know what? I'm almost there. After this semester, I have nothing to do except write my thesis, work and train for a spring marathon that has yet to be decided. I'm lucky enough to already have my thesis topic ironed out and hey, if I'm really on top of things, I'll have the first draft done by mid-March and then, I'll be free until I find a job!

So that's one thing I did this month, I started my 2nd and final year of graduate school (#8 off my list). And here are a few things I did:

I finished reading The Old Testament! Man, it was hard to get through, but I did it!
I read "The Souls of Black Folk" - #44 off The Book List
I went to a music festival!
I made 2 recipes out of one of my cookbooks

The school year always makes crossing things off my list a bit of a challenge but you know what, September actually shaped up to be a pretty good month! Here's a look at some of the non-list related things I did in a photo recap:

I ate a lot of 16 Handles

I did a lot of yoga!

The Pilot moved back home!

I ran...a lot and made NYRR's event gallery!

So there you have it! Now, it's October and I have big plans for the month! My plans involve consuming obscene amounts of pumpkin flavored things, writing a lot of papers, tackling Tolstoy again (War & Peace was so good!), oh and running my 2nd marathon. It's gonna be a fun month, that's for sure!

What are your October plans?

Race Recap: Grete's Great Gallop and a New PR!

2011-10-02T23:44:00.001-04:00

This race was a lot of things for me. It was a training run, it was a dress rehearsal run, it was both the best and worst race I've ever run, and it was the first race I've ever done where I actually almost quit.

Thursday night, I had a ~~dream~~ nightmare that I woke up late and didn't get to the race until 20 minutes after it started. I had been really pumped for the race all week but something happened Friday night as I was getting ready for bed and I just wasn't excited anymore. Was it the impending rain for race morning? Was it overtraining? These questions and a million others circled my head all night Saturday and I didn't sleep at all. I got out of bed about 20 minutes before my alarm, made breakfast, got dressed and headed to the race.

If you follow me on Twitter, you know that my Garmin died on Thursday. It's currently en route to Olethe, KS where the folks at Garmin are going to replace it with a new one. So I packed my iPod with the idea of using my Nike+ without the headphones and still using my Sony headset since it has all my updated music.

When I got to the race, I dropped off my bag, pulled out my headset and my iPod and with a last minute decision, threw my iPod back into my bag. I didn't even have time to think about this before I ran to the starting line about 2 minutes before the gun went off.

The course was a familiar 2 loops of Central Park starting on the East Drive and ending at Tavern on the Green. I was in a pretty far back corral (I really don't understand NYRR's corralling system) so it took us a bit to get to the start and as I heard the beep-beep-beeps of Garmins going off all around me, I thought to myself, "Well this will be interesting" and off I went. I tried to turn on my headset which I had fully charged the night before and it wouldn't turn on. I started panicking...no music? For 13.1 miles? And no Garmin to at least distract my attention for part of it? I'm f*cked.

My legs felt like lead as I took off over the start forgetting to see what time it was that I crossed the starting line. By the time we hit Mile 2, I thought...I'm going to run as far as I can go and call it quits, I don't know what's going on but I don't have the stamina to finish this race. We starting climbing the Heartbreak Hill around Mile 3 and I thought about stopping to walk but I told myself to get to the top of the hill and if I wanted to walk then, I could. That mentality saved me this entire race. Every time we hit those hills which I've never once walked up in any training run or race, ever, but seemed so difficult yesterday, I told myself that I had to run to the top and could walk down from there.

And you know what? I never once walked.

Coming down Cat Hill definitely woke my legs up and at Mile 5 I GU'd and almost immediately felt the effects. I started feeling good and started playing Math games in my head trying to figure out how I was doing pace wise. I figured I was hitting at least a 9 minute mile. We hit the starting line again and the next mile or so went by quickly. As I was approaching Mile 7 (also the Finish Line), I heard the announcer say that the first place male finisher was approaching the start. I turned to look behind me and there he was! Not only did I see him break the banner, but I was running right alongside him (in the passing lane of course) which was awesome and gave me a little spring in my step to get through the next few miles.

I was in the passing lane at this point...and a little jealous that he was already done!

The second time around Heartbreak Hill didn't seem so bad but I really wanted music at this point. It was really humid out and it had been cold in the morning so I wore capris and I was starting to get warm. When we started the ascent up Cat Hill, I started thinking about walking and again told myself I could walk if I just made it to the top. I got to the top, just about Mile 10 and really started thinking about quitting. I was tired, I was hurting, it was hot and I just wasn't feeling the race. But then I saw the clock and it said something like 1:31 and I thought...hey, I just might be in range of a PR if I keep this up. So I GUd and kept going. I knew I was maintaining a pretty fast pace the whole time and I tried to slow down a little bit but my body just wouldn't let me. Maybe I was, maybe I wasn't, I had no idea and you know what? That kind of felt good.

Miles 10, 11 and 12 seemed absolutely endless. I almost wish I had had my Garmin just to see if the miles actually measured evenly because they seemed to go on forever. Between 10 and 11, my heel started to really hurt and I stopped to adjust my sock only to realize that the whole back of my foot was bloody.

That's what happens when you forget to wash your socks the night before a race and just throw on any old pair.

I had come into this race with the idea of treating it as a dress rehearsal race but without a Garmin, that was tough. I still had plans to run the last 5k as fast as possible. I know I definitely ran Mile 11 the slowest of all of them, I could just feel it but Mile 12, I started to sprint and just run out everything I had. By Mile 13, I was done, I ran through the finish line but definitely didn't sprint. At that point, I had nothing left to give.

I crossed the finish line in just under 1:59 and was anxious as to whether that would be a PR or not. As I walked through the finisher's chute, I got so dizzy and felt like I was going to pass out. I slowed down, took some Gatorade and started to feel a little better. I saw a very sweaty Emily just at the end of the chute and we had a very sweaty hug and made our way to the Norwegian festival for waffles. I stuck around until they posted the results and freaked out when I couldn't find my name among the 1:58:xx or 1:57:xx finishers.

And then, I saw my name and my time.

1:55:45.

A 2 1/2 minute PR.

And all of a sudden, the race became awesome. I ran this race purely by how I felt. I had no idea what my pace was or how far away from each mile marker I was. I had no music to get me through the tough points of the race but I still managed a huge PR even after I thought about walking and even after I thought about quitting.

You know what that means? I'm ready to take on Marine Corps and I'm ready to kill it.

Three Things Thursday

2011-09-29T09:57:00.002-04:00

1. Training Update - I skipped out on a Training Tuesday post this week because I didn't want to plan a week of training without knowing how my foot was feeling. After giving myself a full week of rest, I headed out Tuesday for an easy 7 mile run and felt great! It doesn't hurt to walk anymore or to run. There's a dull pain around a bruise that creeped up over the weekend so I've been icing it and I bought a brace that I've been wearing when I'm not running and so far so good. I ran 6 easy miles yesterday and am hoping to pick up the pace a little bit tonight in order to get my legs up to speed for Saturday's Half.

2. Grete's Great Gallop - Speaking of Saturday's Half, I'm running the NYRR Norwegian Festival which I'm actually pretty excited about. The course is two loops of Central Park and it isn't sold out which I'm hoping means it won't be too crowded because the last half I did in Central Park was so crowded, I was walking up the Harlem Hills because I couldn't move any faster. Not cool kids. I still managed to run a sub-2 half and am aiming for a big PR this time around. I'm contemplating adding on some miles before to make for 20 since I missed last week's 20 but we'll see. My race plan is to start out steady, around a 9 minute mile for the first 3 miles or so, run the next 7 at marathon goal pace and spring my heart out for the last 5k. Wish me luck!

Thankfully I won't be dressed like this on Saturday.

3. September-October - The month of September has been such a blur for for me. I was crazy busy every weekend and I had no idea that I would be as busy during the week as I was on the weekends. I've got a lot of school work to catch up on and now is when things are starting to kick in. I have a friend coming to town this weekend to cheer me on at the race and after she leaves, I'm planning to kick October into lazy gear...finish my last week of training before taper strong and then just rest, recover and get ready for MCM because I'm getting pumped to toe that line!

via

What are you looking forward to this October? (Besides pumpkin everything) Any big races or events?

#10 Go to a music festival

2011-09-27T22:27:00.003-04:00

I've always wanted to go to one of those big crazy 3 day music festivals that last all day and are filled with bad for you but oh so delicious foods, lots of beer and people just enjoying the music.

Last year, The Pilot and I tried to make it to HullabaLOU but the timing just wasn't right for us two recent grads who were starved for income.

Miranda Lambert headlined a festival in his town in Florida this spring but it was really expensive and I couldn't afford the plane ticket to Florida and the festival tickets.

So when my friend Courtney texted me and said there was a country music festival on Long Island in September and that the tickets were cheap, I was definitely in!

Thompson Square and Eric Church were headlining so I was pretty excited. It was a little cold for my taste and my legs were sore from the 18-mile run/race I had done before but we had a great time! There was lots of bad for you but oh so good foods (read funnel cake, cheese fries and beer), good music and dancing!

I hadn't been out to Long Island since I ran the Diva's Half Marathon last year so it was good to get out there again.

The Stage

Me and the girls

The festival was sponsored by Vets Rock, an organization that sponsors music festivals that raise funds to provide food and shelter to homeless and hungry veterans.

They had a pretty good line up including: The Jane Dear Girls Frankie Ballard, Katie Armiger (who I had never heard of but loved!) and a bunch of other people.

The Thompson Square duo kissing during "Are you Gonna Kiss Me or Not"

We had a great time, it was low key but tons of fun and hey, it's another thing I crossed off my list! And maybe next summer I'll get to make it out to one of those 3 day long festivals! Have you ever been to one? Any recommendations for one?